Theinaugural trade of a futures contract for Illinois Basin coal has been launchedApril 5 with counterparties agreeing to a price of $31 per ton for 5,000 tonsper month for the fourth quarter of 2016.

Thetrade was facilitated by Evolution Markets Inc. over-the-counter, through itssubsidiary Evolution Markets Futures LLC., and has been given up to the ICE forclearing as a block trade. It is the first in the ICE-listed and financiallysettled contracts for coal mined from the Illinois Basin and delivered on the Ohio River.

"Themarket has been anticipating the launch of ICE's financially settled IllinoisBasin contract, and we are very pleased to have facilitated its firsttrade," said Stephen Nesis, Managing Director at Evolution Markets."We look forward to continuing to develop liquidity in this important newcontract, which should provide an additional and vital outlet for hedging pricerisk exposure in U.S. coal markets."

TheICE futures contract settles financially against the Platts OTC Broker Index,according to a news release.

Platts and S&P GlobalMarket Intelligence are owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc.