Vienna, Paris, Leipzig, 4 August 2016 – The envisaged cooperation between the Austrian Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) and the Paris-based Powernext has nowofficially been approved by the Austrian and German competition authorities. In the context of this cooperation, the Austrian CEGH Gas Exchange spot and futures contracts will be operated on the PEGAS platform under the Powernext rulebook and exchange license. The migration of CEGH products to the PEGAS platform will be carried out by the end of November 2016. In addition, the agreement foresees the joint development of the Austrian as well as the Central and Eastern European (CEE) gas markets.
Gottfried Steiner, CEO of Central European Gas Hub AG, comments: “CEGH Gas Exchange members will substantially benefit from this cooperation, which will also enable spread trading to other European markets and further increase liquidity at the Austrian VTP”.
Egbert Laege, CEO of Powernext, highlights the importance of the deal for the development of the PEGAS platform: “We are very happy to have completed this major step in the development of PEGAS to become the one-stop-shop for European gas trading. This expansion of PEGAS into the Central Eastern European region is a key piece in our strategy to expand the geographical coverage of our offering.” As the basis for this cooperation, Powernext and CEGH will establish a joint company in Vienna with a 51% Powernext shareholding and a 49% CEGH shareholding. Its managing director will be Gottfried Steiner. This joint company will ensure local service for the Austrian market while customers will benefit as well from access to the pan-European PEGAS offering.
Recently, Powernext had announced that the Danish Gaspoint Nordic will join the PEGAS platform by the end of the year. After the completion of the cooperation with CEGH, the PEGAS platform will cover the markets of Austria, Denmark, Germany,
France, the Netherlands, UK, Belgium and Italy.
Central European Gas Hub AG (CEGH) provides a gas trading platform for international gas companies in Austria and runs the CEGH OTC Market and the CEGH Gas Exchange of Wiener Boerse with a Spot Market (including Within-Day Market) and a Futures Market. Moreover, CEGH also offers the CEGH Czech Gas Exchange in cooperation with PXE. CEGH is the operator of the Virtual Trading Point (VTP) in Austria. CEGH is a subsidiary of OMV Gas & Power (65%), Wiener Boerse (20%) and Eustream (15%). In 2015, CEGH established itself as one of Central Europe's leading trading platforms when it achieved a nominated volume of 478 TWh of natural gas at the CEGH-VTP. For more information: www.cegh.at
Powernext is a regulated market operating under AMF supervision. Powernext manages the natural gas activities of the EEX Group under the PEGAS brand throughout Europe, and operates the National Registry for electricity guarantees of origin in France. For more information: www.powernext.com
PEGAS is the central gas trading platform of EEX Group operated by Powernext. PEGAS provides its members with access to all products on one single platform and allows them to trade natural gas contracts in the Belgian, Dutch, French, German, Austrian, Danish, Italian and UK market areas. The product range of PEGAS covers
spot and derivatives contracts for the major European gas hubs as well as trading in location spread products between these market areas. This setup enables market harmonisation and forms the preferred pan-European natural gas market. For more information: www.pegas-trading.com
Powernext SA
Dr. Jan Richter
Head of Regulatory Affairs &
Communications
Phone: +33 (0) 1 73 03 96 00
E-mail: press@powernext.com
www.powernext.com
Central European Gas Hub AG
Roland Wolk
Head of Marketing & Sales
Phone: +43 1 2702700 - 28508
E-Mail: roland.wolk@gashub.at
www.cegh.at