Merrill Lynch New Energy Technology Plc

UK emissions trading exchange owner Climate Exchange announced rapidly-increasing volumes on the European Climate Exchange, which passed the one million tonnes of carbon dioxide futures per day mark in June. The exchange has traded in excess of 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide futures contracts since its launch in April, and continues to benefit from responses to Kyoto as well as a growing awareness among companies of their environmental footprint.

Anybody watching this one?

"Climate Exchange plc, the leading global environmental exchange operator, will announce its preliminary results for the year ending 31 December 2009 on Friday 12 March 2010.

An analyst briefing, hosted by Neil Eckert, CEO, and Matthew Whittell, CFO, will be held on the day at 9.30am in the Drawing Room at Merchant Taylors' Hall, 30 Threadneedle Street, EC2R 8JB. Those wishing to attend should contact Alexandra Parry at Haggie Financial on 020 7417 8989 or by email at alexandra.parry@haggie.co.uk.

For investors and for analysts unable to attend the earlier briefing, a conference call will be held at 2.00 pm (Greenwich Mean Time), 9.00 am (Central Daylight Time) and 10.00 am (Eastern Daylight Time). Dial-in details will be included in the statement and available on the Company's website in due course."

Business Financial Newswire
"Climate Exchange says that 2010 ECX trading volumes continued to climb with a total of 476.43m tonnes changing hands in March, up from 458.94m tonnes in February.

CO Neil Eckert comments: "March was a month that exhibited low volatility across many financial asset classes. In spite of this we recorded further progress in ECX.

"Our key metric is open interest which is the lead indicator of underlying growth irrespective of short term volumes. This continued to grow.

"The political situation in the US is progressing. Health Care legislation was passed by the Senate and the Bi-partisan initiative lead by Senators Graham, Lieberman and Kerry is still being worked on.

"Press reports state it will contain a 2.5bn ton Cap and Trade provision for the Power Sector, which is 25% larger than EU ETS, the foundation for our success at ECX.

"Whilst we cannot speculate on the outcome of such a Bill, we are excited by its potential impact, if successful, it could be a value changing event for CLE."

"The Boards of IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. ("ICE") and Climate Exchange plc ("Climate Exchange") are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of the unanimously recommended acquisition by Aether Ios Limited ("Bidco"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICE, of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Climate Exchange (the "Acquisition").

Under the terms of the Acquisition, Climate Exchange Shareholders will receive 750 pence in cash for each Climate Exchange Share (the "Offer Price") held at the Scheme Record Time, valuing the entire existing issued and to be issued share capital of Climate Exchange at approximately 395 million."

Broker note from KBC:
"ICE has timed its deal cleverly. Carbon trading volumes in Europe have hit a new monthly high (volumes MTD April +90% vs March) on carbon prices at last on the move. Sentiment over the US introducing cap-and-trade had just been hit. The offer is close to our fair value WITHOUT a bid premium. A counter-bidder could have paid more but has been squeezed out. There is no real alternative but to accept the offer.
ICE has made a recommended offer at 750p cash. With 53% irrevocable acceptance there is effectively no room for a counter-offer, even if another player can afford to pay more.
The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) entered into CLE equity through a 22 June 2009 acquisition of a 4.8% stake at 644p per share. It has long been obvious that CLE would fit attractively into ICEs portfolio. The 750p cash offer is close to fair value for CLE, without a bid premium, hence the offer is not generous. 24x PER on FY2012E may seem a high rating, but CLE is strongly positioned for US cap-and-trade. Our fair value of 713p was a probability weighted average, including an allowance for trading fees to fall by 75% in Europe.
CLE paid ICE an estimated 7.3m last year in revenue share, which we expect to rise to 10.0m this year, 2010. We do not know the terms of this agreement but if an acquirer other than ICE could make a 50% net margin on the revenue share it would reduce the PER of an acquisition based on 2011 earnings by 35% we estimate. The irrevocable undertakings ensure that this will not be achieved.