New NYMEX Member; D. E. Shaw Group Affiliate Approved

NEW YORK - The D. E. Shaw group has announced that one of its affiliates, D. E. Shaw Plasma Portfolios, L.L.C., was recently approved for membership in the NYMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., the world’s largest physical commodities exchange. This marks the first time in the New York Mercantile Exchange’s 135-year history that a firm historically focused primarily on alternative investment strategies has held a membership on the exchange.

“We’re very pleased to have our membership approved by NYMEX’s Board of Directors, and believe this approval marks an important milestone in the continued institutionalization of the hedge fund industry,” said Kevin Fox, a managing director of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. and head of the firm’s energy group. “Our member status meaningfully reduces our cost of trading on the NYMEX platform, and we thus expect to see an increased volume of orders we place there.”

The D. E. Shaw group is a global investment and technology development firm. Since its organization in 1988, the firm has earned an international reputation for financial innovation, technological leadership, and an extraordinarily distinguished staff. The D. E. Shaw group encompasses a number of closely related entities with approximately 1,000 employees, $25 billion in aggregate investment capital, and offices in New York, London, Silicon Valley, Houston, Kansas City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Bermuda, and Hyderabad and Gurgaon, India.