Released on: December 09, 2011, 1:33 pm
Author: Saxo Bank
Industry: Financial
Saxo Bank, the trading and investment specialist, and ICAP Shipping, the shipping arm of ICAP plc, announced on Thursday that they were involved in the execution of the world's first electronic, voice-assisted trade of a container freight swap agreement settled in US dollars.
The counterparties to the trade were Saxo Bank in Denmark as the buyer and a Netherlands-based trading house as the seller. ICAP Shipping was the broker of the trade. The container freight swap agreement was executed on ICAP's Webtrader platform, with manual input from ICAP Shipping brokers and cleared by LCH.Clearnet.
The trade was executed by rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio during ICAP's 19th annual Charity Day. On ICAP Charity, all ICAP revenues are donated to a selection of 200 charities and celebrity patrons are invited to help close deals. Mr. Dallaglio attended ICAP Charity Day in support of Cancer Research and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Container freight swap agreements lock in the freight exposure for standard
containers transported from Asia to Europe, Mediterranean countries and the United
States. Cash flow for this sort of freight exposure has been unpredictable for
retailers, importers and logistic companies in the past and the concept of pricing
container freight against indices and using swap agreements to manage the risk has
attracted many industry participants over the last year. Screen execution with the
added surety of voice broker assistance was a key requirement of customers.
Henry Liddell, CEO ICAP Shipping said: "The execution of the world's first
electronic container freight swap agreement is an important milestone in the
on-going development of the container swaps market. This youngest segment in the
shipping industry has seen a rapid growth over the last decade and will become an
even more important risk management tool in the current economic environment.
Container swaps are a hedging tool for the container industry to manage the price
volatility of the physical market."
Johan Gade, Freight & OTC Derivatives, Saxo Bank said: "We fully support electronic freight derivatives trading and believe that going forward container swaps will be a valuable addition to the electronic dry bulk and tanker freight derivatives offering we are about to launch."
About Saxo Bank
Saxo Bank is a leading online trading and investment specialist. A fully licensed
and regulated European bank, Saxo Bank enables private investors and institutional
clients to trade FX, CFD,
ETFs, Stocks, Futures, Options and other derivatives
via three specialised and fully integrated trading platforms; the browser-based
SaxoWebTrader, the downloadable SaxoTrader and the SaxoMobileTrader application are
available in over 20 languages.
Saxo Bank also offers professional portfolio and fund management. Saxo Asset Management accommodates high-net worth private clients and institutional investors and Saxo Privatbank provides banking services and advice to retail clients. The Saxo Bank Group is headquartered in Copenhagen with offices throughout Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Australia. For more information, please visit www.saxobank.com
About ICAP
ICAP is the world's leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade risk and
information services. The Group matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets
in interest rates, credit, commodities, FX, emerging markets and equity derivatives
through voice and electronic networks. Through our post trade risk and information
services we help our customers manage and mitigate risks in their portfolios. For
more information go to www.icap.com.
PR contact:
Kasper Elbjorn
Head of Group Public Relations
Saxo Bank
40 Bank Street
Canary Wharf
London
+45 3065 4300
press@saxobank.com