Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)'s increased offer for Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT) may have edged it closer to winning over the crucial member shareholder block at its target, but more persuasion or sweetening may be needed to close the deal.
CME raised its bid for CBoT on 11 May by offering 0.35 CME shares, up from 0.3006 shares for each CBoT share, an offer that is worth roughly $9.9bn depending on the stock price. While the latest offer is more than its original $8bn bid from CME last October, it still falls short of Intercontinental Exchange's (ICE) $10.5bn offer. CME's new bid also prices CBoT at $186 a share, which was below its share price of $196 on 16 May.
The latest bid was endorsed by the CBoT board of directors who believe there is more security and upside with a combined CBoT-CME entity than there...