ICE Futures Canada to Introduce Wheat and Barley Contracts Upon Enactment of Legislation Providing Grain Marketing Freedom for Farmers

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ICE Futures Canada, a subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), today announced its intention to introduce new futures contracts for milling wheat, durum wheat and barley if federal legislation providing marketing freedom for farmers is enacted by the Canadian Parliament. The Government of Canada yesterday introduced Bill C-18, which proposes to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly for sales and marketing of Canadian wheat and barley in the export and human consumption markets as of August 1, 2012.

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"These contracts recognize Canada's central role in the global agricultural marketplace and they serve an essential role in providing transparent price discovery and risk management tools," said Brad Vannan, President and Chief Operating Officer of ICE Futures Canada. "Domestic and international market participants have expressed substantial demand for global benchmark futures contracts designed specifically for Canadian milling wheat, durum wheat and barley. We will continue to work with the industry and regulators as these contracts are developed."

The new milling wheat, durum wheat and barley contracts will be modeled on ICE Futures Canada's canola futures contract, which has annual trading volume in excess of 4 million contracts (80 million tonnes) and is familiar to Canadian farmers, merchants and processors, as well as the international trading community.

The contracts, which will be priced in Canadian Dollars, have been designed in consultation with grain market participants. The milling wheat and durum wheat contracts will be 100 tonnes in size, while barley, like canola, will be 20 tonnes.  ICE Futures Canada expects to publish contract specifications pending regulatory approval from the Manitoba Securities Commission. Following approval of the MSC and enactment of Bill C-18, the exchange expects to list the new contracts for delivery in October 2012.

Canada is the world's fourth largest exporter of wheat and the largest supplier of durum wheat. ICE Futures Canada's milling wheat contract will represent the high quality milling wheat for which Canada is widely renowned.

Founded in 1887 as the Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange, the exchange later became the Winnipeg Commodities Exchange and was acquired by ICE in 2007.

About IntercontinentalExchange

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) is a leading operator of regulated futures exchanges and over-the-counter markets for agricultural, credit, currency, emissions, energy and equity index contracts. ICE Futures Europe hosts trade in half of the world's crude and refined oil futures. ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Futures Canada list agricultural, currencies and Russell Index markets. ICE is also a leading operator of central clearing services for the futures and over-the-counter markets, with five regulated clearing houses across North America and Europe. ICE serves customers in more than 70 countries. www.theice.com  

The following are trademarks of IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies: IntercontinentalExchange, ICE, ICE and block design, and ICE Futures Canada. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information regarding registered trademarks owned by IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies, see https://www.theice.com/terms.jhtml

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 - Statements in this press release regarding IntercontinentalExchange's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, as filed with the SEC on February 9, 2011 and ICE's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, as filed with the SEC on August 3, 2011.

ICE-AG

SOURCE IntercontinentalExchange

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