Businessweek

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. operates regulated global markets and clearing houses, including futures exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) markets, derivatives clearing houses, and post-trade services. The company operates three regulated futures exchanges in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), and Canada. The company operates these global marketplaces for trading and clearing a range of energy, environmental, and agricultural commodities; credit default swaps (CDS); and equity indexes and currency contracts. It offers electronic platforms for trading products in both the futures and OTC markets together with clearing services, post-trade processing, and market data. It also offers a range of services to support its participants’ risk management and trading activities. The company conducts its regulated energy futures markets through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, ICE Futures Europe and ICE Futures U.S., Inc. (ICE Futures U.S.). It conducts its regulated U.S. agricultural and financial futures markets through ICE Futures U.S. The company conducts its regulated Canadian agricultural futures markets through its wholly-owned subsidiary, ICE Futures Canada, Inc. (ICE Futures Canada). Its energy futures contracts are cleared by ICE Clear Europe Limited (ICE Clear Europe); ICE Futures U.S. agricultural and financial contracts are cleared by ICE Clear U.S., Inc. (ICE Clear U.S.); and ICE Futures Canada’s agricultural contracts are cleared by ICE Clear Canada, Inc. (ICE Clear Canada), each of which is a separate wholly-owned subsidiary. It conducts its OTC bilateral physical energy markets through ICE U.S. OTC Commodity Markets, LLC as an exempt commercial market under the Commodity Exchange Act. The company conducts its CDS trade execution business through Creditex Group Inc. and its subsidiaries (Creditex), an interdealer broker for CDS. The company’s core products include contracts based on crude and refined oil, natural gas, power, coal, emissions, sugar, cotton, coffee, cocoa, canola, frozen concentrated orange juice, CDS, currencies, and equity indexes. Its markets provide participants with a means for trading and managing risks associated with price volatility and securing physical delivery of certain contracts, as well as enabling asset allocation or diversification. The company’s global customer base includes corporations, manufacturers, utilities, commodity producers and refiners, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors, and governmental bodies. It operates its futures and OTC bilateral physical energy markets primarily on its electronic trading platforms and offers trading in CDS through a hybrid model in which trading is offered both electronically and through voice brokerage operations. In addition to trade execution, the company’s technology infrastructure provides for trading-related services, including pre- and post-trade risk management, connectivity, electronic trade confirmation, market data, and clearing services to enable integration of front-, back-, and middle-office trading, processing, and risk management capabilities. Products and Services Regulated Energy Futures Products The company’s major contract is the ICE Brent Crude futures contract and it is based on forward physical delivery of a blend of light, sweet crude oil that originates from oil fields in the North Sea that comprise the Brent complex. The ICE Gasoil futures contract is a European heating oil contract that offers physical delivery and serves as a pricing benchmark for refined oil products, primarily in Europe and Asia. The company also operates primary market for trading in West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures. Regulated Agricultural Futures Products ICE Futures U.S. is a regulated commodity futures exchange for trading agricultural commodities. These contracts are designed to provide pricing and hedging tools to industry users worldwide, as well as strategic trading opportunities for investors. The prices for the company’s agricultural contracts serve as global benchmarks for the physical commodity markets, including Sugar No. 11 (world raw sugar), Coffee ‘C’ (Arabica