The proposed sale of New York Board of Trade (Nybot) to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has raised questions over Nybot's trading floor lease with rival New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).
The deal, announced late last week, would pay $1bn in cash and ICE stock to Nybot members for the exchange and its clearinghouse. However, some observers have noted the potential takeover could cause a problem regarding the floor lease agreement Nybot has with Nymex and whether or not the deal would violate it.
Nybot agreed to a non-compete clause, prohibiting it from offering any competing contracts.
The issue being examined by Nymex last week was whether that clause could be extended after ICE's...