TSX Group Inc. expects to settle on a strategy for the derivatives market around the end of this year and is eyeing the Ontario electricity market’s potential for its energy trading unit, TSX executives said today.

“Our vision is to trade multiple asset classes on our platforms,” CEO Richard Nesbitt said in a presentation to analysts in Toronto.

“We plan to be fully in the derivatives business by 2009,” with the expiry of an agreement granting the Canadian equity futures and options business to the Montreal Exchange.

“We will crystallize our thinking as to how we’ll enter the derivatives space some time around the end of this year,” Nesbitt said.

Peter Krenkel, president of the Natural Gas Exchange, said the energy trading unit is excited about growing into the electricity market.

“Canada has been a little bit slow to adopt deregulation of its power markets, for various reasons, but things are now starting to happen,” Krenkel said.

“Alberta is fully deregulated and Ontario is starting to make some moves to allow commercial markets to develop.”

The Ontario market, currently managed by the Independent Electricity System Operator set up by the provincial government, “is of particular interest to us because of its size and its diversity of supply,” Krenkel said.

TSX Group chief financial offer Michael Ptasznik said management and the board continue to consider the possibility of a conversion into an income trust for the company.