Faced with a decline in the turnover and thereby, lower valuation of the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is planning to sell a part of its holding in India’s second largest commodity derivatives platform.
According to analysts, one of the largest energy trading platforms may reduce its holding to the regulatory level of 5 per cent.
ICE entered into the Indian commodity market in 2007 with 8 per cent equity buying on the NCDEX at an undisclosed sum. The Atlanta-based exchange, which leads in energy futures globally, logged a $16-million charge to write down the value of its stake in NCDEX, its chief executive Jeffrey Sprecher said in a seminar in New York on Tuesday. The minority stake in NCDEX facilitated ICE in an ongoing dialogue with Indian officials looking to learn about markets trading and price discovery, Sprecher added.
With commodity prices soaring last year, the government of India suspended futures trading in several agricultural commodities including the most active contracts like soyoil and pulses.