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?

Historically this is the time when the sp seems to be at it's lowest. Possibly see 600p. A good buying opportunity imo with a surge in the sp in the spring.
The talks in Copenhagen seem to have had little or no effect on CLE thus far.

Where's the global warming?
The whole of UK and Europe are a frozen state, not seen for many decades.
Such a load of bollocks for politicians to give excuse to tax for greenhouse gases.

Time to watch ready for the upward cycle & shorters closing out.

Richard Sandor, Executive Chairman of Climate Exchange plc, said: "While Washington continues to work on climate legislation, we're seeing increased activity in state policymaking circles in the United States, especially in the area of renewable energy. CCFE closed February with record high open interest in our REC contracts. In Europe, ECX volumes were up again in February continuing on a path of steady growth."

Highlights
2010 ECX volumes continue to grow. February's totals show a modest year-on-year increase to reach 458,942 contracts, up 10% on January. Screen traded volumes continue to climb with EUA Futures alone trading over 10,000 contracts per day, a total of 200,193 for the month.
The Dec 13 Futures contract became increasingly active trading every day and total volume for the month reaching 15,150 contracts. Open interest has reached 16,549,000 tonnes in the Dec 13 and 715,000 tonnes in the Dec 14. ECX Dec 13 Options contract is scheduled to be introduced in march.
ECX Daily Futures (Spot) volumes continue to grow with almost 15.5m tonnes traded in total in EUAs and CERs. February was a record month for ECX EUA Daily Futures contracts with 14,750 contracts traded.
Despite lower volatility, February was an active month in the emissions options market as over 61m tonnes cleared onto the Exchange, an average of more than 3,000 contacts per day - the majority of activity was in the Dec 10 EUAs which saw a 34% increase in open interest during February.
Open interest in all products continues to rise and is now approaching 700,000 contracts, a 36% increase since delivery in December.
Open interest across all CCFE products ended the month at 108,950, up 37% from 79,607 last year.
Open interest in the CCFE Renewable Energy Certificate futures ended the month at a record high of 3,690.
Volumes in the CCFE SFI and NFI-A futures and options contracts was 48,031 contracts, up 36% from the 35,334 last year.

"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.