APRIL 2008: New all-time-high for IMAREX tanker FFAs

Trading statistics - Freight Derivatives April 2008:

CEO's view point:

“April was another strong month for IMAREX with nearly 2000 trades done and notional values up by $1 billion compared to April last year. Both our FFA and our options brokerage is firing on all cylinders – with our tanker team pulling a new record number of transactions. This growth in transaction volumes makes us very optimistic about the future of IMAREX and our markets,” says Herman Michelet, CEO at IMAREX in Oslo

Proportional statistics - Freight Derivatives April 2008:

NOS Clearing - OPEN INTEREST Freight Derivatives: April 2008

At the end of April, Open Interest for Dry bulk and Tanker future contracts was 76 206 lots (long only positions). Open interest for Freight Options was 30 271 lots, according to current NOS Clearing open interest calculation methodology.

(Please note: The Open Interest is the total number of lots which remain to be liquidated by either close-out-trades or delivery at NOS. NOS counts only long positions. Other clearing houses often counts both long and short positions into the open interest. Please note: 1 lot = 1000 metric tons for all tanker and bunker fuel oil contracts as well as C4 and C7 contracts. For P2A, P3A, HS6TC, SM6TC, PM4TC and CS4TC, 1 lot=1 day of time charter)

New trading and clearing members:

Two new members were added, making the total number of clearing and trading members 198

Quick summary April 2008:

International Maritime Exchange, the regulated electronic market place for freight futures and options and part of the stock listed IMAREX Group of companies (OSE: IMAREX) saw the value of contracts traded rise by US$ 1 billion to US$ 1.8 billion – a 116% increase compared to the same month last year. IMAREX recorded substantial increases in number of transactions concluded, volumes traded and the value of trades put through the exchange. In particular, the value of freight options traded rose 385% to $548 million. “April was another strong month for IMAREX with nearly 2000 trades done and notional values up by $1 billion compared to April last year. Both our FFA and our options brokerage is firing on all cylinders – with our tanker team pulling a new record number of transactions. This growth in transaction volumes makes us very optimistic about the future of IMAREX and our markets,” says Herman Michelet, CEO at IMAREX in Oslo. The value of dry bulk FFAs rose $579 million -183% to $896 million. The IMAREX tanker teams pulled in 1 666 transactions, a new record. More than 80% of all transactions occurred on the IMAREX screen. Total volumes traded came in close to 42 000 with Open Interest (Long only) at 76 206 lots of FFAs and 30 300 lots of Freight Options.

For more information, please contact:

• Herman Michelet Tel: +47 2389 4230 hm@imarex.com
• Morten Erichsen, NOS Clearing Tel: +47 2325 9305 morten.erichsen@nos.no