JOHANNESBURG and CHICAGO, August 24, 2009. – The JSE Ltd today announced that it had extended its existing licensing agreement with CME Group, the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, to give South Africans the ability to trade rand-denominated platinum, gold and crude oil futures contracts. In January this year, the JSE signed an agreement with CME Group to use its benchmark corn futures settlement prices for a local Corn future.

The new agreement enables the JSE to offer trade in futures contracts referencing benchmark gold settlement prices from CME Group’s COMEX division and platinum and crude oil prices from its NYMEX division. As a result, the JSE will list cash-settled futures contracts for platinum, gold and crude oil on the JSE’s Commodities Derivatives Market in September 2009.

“Expanding the existing relationship with CME Group to incorporate these additional products is an achievement for the South African derivatives market,” says Rod Gravelet-Blondin, head of the Commodity Derivatives Market at the JSE.

“South Africa is the world’s largest platinum producer and third largest gold producer and so it made sense that we needed to offer South African investors related futures products which they could use either to gain exposure  or hedge their exposure to a listed equity stock involved in the two commodities. The gold and platinum settlement prices from NYMEX and COMEX, two highly liquid exchanges forming part of CME Group, will ensure that the locally listed contracts reference an international benchmark for final settlement. This will bring much comfort to investors who will be able to access the international market via these rand-denominated contracts.”

The South African Reserve Bank granted the JSE approval to trade future and option contracts on Foreign Referenced Commodities in June 2008, subject to certain conditions.

“We are also particularly excited about the opportunities a crude oil contract gives to investors seeking exposure to the international oil market or to organisations wanting to hedge their energy usage against the benchmark,” says Gravelet-Blondin.  “The opportunity to work with CME Group has increased the products we can offer market participants and complements our future growth strategy.” 

“Following the success of the JSE’s corn futures contract based on our CBOT settlement prices, we are pleased at the opportunity to extend our relationship with the JSE in the form of these new commodity-linked products,” said Rick Redding, CME Group Managing Director, Products and Services. “CME Group continues to explore new and innovative ways of facilitating effective risk management for suppliers and investors globally. By referencing our global benchmark prices, the JSE is enabling its users to access new tools to further their hedging needs.” 

Media Contacts

JSE Limited

Victoria Williams/Roz Thomas            

Corporate Communications Consultants (Pty) Ltd           

Tel: +27 11 783 8926                                                   

Fax: +27 11 783 7608                                         

Email: victoria@corpcom.co.za / Rozt@corpcom.co.za

On behalf of

Rod Gravelet-Blondin

Senior General Manager: Agricultural Products at the JSE

JSE Ltd

Tel +27 11 520 7258

CME Group

Jeremy Hughes, CME Group

+44 207 796 7112

Jeremy.hughes@cmegroup.com

http://cmegroup.mediaroom.com/

Investor Contact

John Peschier, CME Group

 312 930 8491

CME-G

http://investor.cmegroup.com/investor-relations/

About JSE Limited

As South Africa’s only full service securities exchange, the JSE connects buyers and sellers in four different financial markets, namely equities, equity derivatives, agricultural derivatives and interest rate instruments. The JSE Ltd offers the investor a truly first world trading environment, with world class technology, surveillance and settlement in an emerging market context.

For further information, please visit www.jse.co.za

About CME Group 

As the world’s largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.   CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®.   These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets. 

Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Detailed information about factors that may affect the performance of CME Group may be found in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the CME Group Web site. Additionally, the proposed joint venture is subject to negotiation of definitive agreements, customary closing conditions and receipt of all regulatory approvals and we cannot assure you that such agreements or conditions will be satisfied. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.