Singapore, 3 February 2012

Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will launch the world‟s first global Black Pepper futures contract on February 10, 2012 and also mark SMX's first agricultural commodities futures contract aimed at creating a new global benchmark for a commodity predominantly produced and exported from the Asia Pacific region to the West.

Vietnam dominates the world Black Pepper market, being the largest producer and exporter of the commodity with 33% & 43% global share respectively, and thus features as the basis delivery centre of the SMX futures contract.

- Physically settled Black Pepper futures contract

- Origin neutral 550 g/l grade

- Deliverable Ex-Approved Bonded Warehouse, Vietnam

- Trading hours span entire Asian time zone

The basis grade is origin neutral 550 g/l black pepper, considering Indonesia, Malaysia and India are also major exporters of the commodity. SMX which has been actively conducting market education programmes through its monthly Investor seminars and regular Commodities conventions, announced the launch of the World‟s first Black Pepper futures contract to be traded on an exchange globally, at the Asian Commodities Convention – Agri Chapter which was presided over by Mr. Sunny Verghese, CEO, Olam International Ltd and attended by a host of commodity futures traders and market participants.

Sunny Verghese said, “The ensuing launch of the first global Black Pepper futures contract on SMX is going to be an important and pioneering milestone for price risk management and will benefit producers, traders and consumers alike. Through a transparent trading mechanism on the exchange platform and a reliable clearing and settlement mechanism facilitated by the clearing corporation, the contract should attract active global participation and act as a global price benchmark over a period of time.”

The trading unit will be 5 metric tons and delivery unit will be 15 metric tons net weight (equivalent to three Futures Contracts), with a weight tolerance of +/-1%. Trading shall be conducted in all the calendar months. At a time four consecutive Contracts Months including current Contract Month will be available for trading. The delivery will be made Ex-Approved Bonded Warehouse within 50 km radius of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

V Hariharan, CEO of SMX, said: “The World‟s first Global Black Pepper futures contract, to be launched by the Exchange has gone through a rigorous industry validation process over the last two years. We are confident that this first agri commodity futures contract on the Exchange will be well accepted by the physical trading community. Going forward we expect to offer more such Asia centric products to facilitate price discovery and price risk management during the Asian time zone.” SMX trading session spans Asian, European and American business hours, with central counterparty clearing performed by SMXCC.

The SMX platform allows remote participation through its diverse network of Members and Independent Software Vendors. The Exchange also offers its own proprietary front-end solution for direct market access. SMX which went live on August 31, 2010 has 50 Members including 7 Clearing Members. The Clearing Members signed-up thus far include Phillip Futures, Ong First, UOB, Newedge, Morgan Stanley, ICICI Bank and Citi. -Ends- About Singapore Mercantile Exchange Singapore Mercantile Exchange is a pan-Asian multi-product commodity and currency derivatives exchange situated in Singapore. It offers a comprehensive platform for trading a diversified basket of commodities including futures and options contracts on precious metals, base metals, agriculture commodities, energy, currencies and indices. SMX offers market participants the benefits of market transparency, time zone convenience, price discovery and benchmarking, price risk management and multiple connectivity options. Counterparty clearing and settlement risk is effectively managed through its clearing house, the Singapore Mercantile Exchange Clearing Corporation.

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More information is available at www.smx.com.sg