An unsolicited bid for NYSE Euronext (NYX) by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) and IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) announced Friday would have little impact on most soft-commodities futures markets, industry members said, except one: cocoa.

If the $11.3 billion cash-and-stock offer is accepted and approved by regulators, Atlanta-based ICE could acquire NYSE's Liffe derivatives suite, including its commodities-futures products.

Most soft-commodity contracts on the Liffe differ from those on ICE, making consolidation nearly impossible. The ICE says it hasn't yet outlined a proposal for how the commodities businesses would be carved up, if at all.

Liffe trades white refined sugar, while ICE trades raw sugar, and where the Liffe operates futures of robusta coffee, ICE operates arabica coffee futures, products that to any trader are as different as apples and oranges.

But cocoa is comparatively uniform, and the creation of a single dollar-based contract would hurt some European traders.

"I would truly hate to see them pull that out because if they change the London contract to a dollar-based contract, it would probably really hurt the market," said Drew Geraghty, a broker at ICAP Futures in New York.

He said having contracts in British pounds and U.S. dollars provides some protection against currency risk for market participants.

"It's a good vehicle," Geraghty said.

The London-based Liffe cocoa contract has about one-fifth greater volume and is worth about $1.5 billion more than ICE's $5 billion cocoa-futures market, as of March 31.

"It would be a very big conflict to try to tie the two markets, except that the deliverable locations are different," said Jack Scoville, a vice president at Price Futures Group in London. "First they have to get a deal."

A takeover of the Liffe is expected to have little impact on other markets, aside from giving ICE greater control over transaction fees.

"I think it's probably a pretty good deal for ICE," Scoville said.

-By Leslie Josephs, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-4055; leslie.josephs@dowjones.com
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