New Spot Trading Company incorporated: EPEX Spot SE – European Power Exchange
Today’s incorporation of the new Spot Trading Company under the name EPEX Spot SE – European Power Exchange represents a major step on the way to the integration of the entire spot power trading activities of EEX and Powernext, respectively the Leipzig-based and Paris-based energy exchanges. Both partners hold 50 percent of the shares in the new Societas Europaea (SE), which has its registered offices in Paris.
The intense cooperation between EEX and Powernext, which includes not only the Spot but also the Derivatives Market and the Clearing, is an initiator for a pan-European power market. While it is advantageous for final consumers to have many power suppliers to choose from, a cooperation of the trading platforms is desirable on the wholesale level in the interest of a uniform European single market.
The foundation of a Societas Europaea (SE) allows companies incorporated in different member states to merge or form a holding company or joint subsidiary, while avoiding the legal and practical constraints arising from the existence of different legal systems.
The company is managed by a Board of Directors which consists of four members: JeanFrançois Conil-Lacoste, CEO Powernext, was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Further members of the board are Dr. Hans-Bernd Menzel, CEO EEX, Iris Weidinger, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) EEX, and Thierry Morello, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Powernext. Powernext and EEX will integrate their entire spot trading activities in power under the umbrella of the newly established company by the end of the year.
Both exchanges publish general information and releases on the cooperation on their common website: http://www.eexpwxcooperation.com.
EEX operates Spot and Derivatives Markets for energy products and energy-related products. With more than 200 trading participants from 20 countries it is the energy exchange in continental Europe which boasts the biggest number of trading participants and the highest turnover. Power, natural gas and CO2 emission rights are traded both short-term on the Spot Market and long-term on the Derivatives Market with a time horizon of up to six years into the future. Furthermore, EEX offers financial settled coal futures. Clearing of exchange and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing) is provided by European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC). ECC is the clearing house of EEX and a subsidiary of the exchange.
Powernext SA, incorporated in 2001, manages several complementary, transparent and anonymous energy markets : Powernext® Day-Ahead facilitates, 365 days a year, the hourly balancing of physical power delivered the following day on the French hub; Powernext® Futures provides electricity price risk hedging for a period ranging between one month and three years; Powernext® Balancing GRTgaz allows the Transmission System Operator GRTgaz to progressively cover its daily balancing needs through a market based mechanism. Powernext recently announced the launch of a spot and futures national gas market by the end of 2008. Powernext® Carbon, the leading spot EUA market, was sold to NYSE Euronext in December 2007.