Chicago Mercantile Exchange postpones vote on CBOT merger

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., April 3 - Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. postponed its special meeting scheduled for April 4 at which shareholders were to vote on the definitive merger agreement with CBOT Holdings, Inc.

The postponement is in light of CBOT's review of the unsolicited merger proposal submitted by IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., according to a company news release.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange and CBOT will announce the new date for their meetings as soon as possible.

"We believe that a thorough review and comparison of our deal and IntercontinentalExchange's proposal will demonstrate that a CBOT/CME merger is financially, strategically and operationally superior," Chicago Mercantile Exchange chief executive officer Craig Donohue said in the release.

"Furthermore, we are confident that our integration with CBOT will not carry the execution risks associated with IntercontinentalExchange's proposal."

CBOT Holdings earlier said it did not intend to comment further on the proposal made by IntercontinentalExchange, which called for the issue of 1.42 of its shares for each CBOT class A common share, valued at $187.34 per share.

The $187.34 per share value represents a 10.5% premium to the current value of the pending acquisition of CBOT by Chicago Mercantile Exchange agreed to in October.

CBOT Holdings operates the Chicago Board of Trade, a Chicago derivatives trading exchange.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the first publicly traded U.S. financial exchange. IntercontinentalExchange is an Atlanta-based electronic energy marketplace.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.