CME Group signed, sealed and delivered

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT) finally came to the end of their roller-coaster deal on 9 July to the applause of CBoT shareholders.CME fended off a spirited challenge from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) when CME sweetened its offer by 7% to close to $12bn on 6 July, just three days before the final vote. That was enough to win over CBoT’s largest shareholder Caledonia Investments, an Australia-based private equity firm that holds 7% of the Board of Trade’s shares and other shareholders followed suit. The final price was also substantially more than CME’s original offer last October of $8bn. A final shareholder vote was not available by press time but exchange executives said the majority of votes counted before the close of the election indicated passage by an overwhelming majority.The deal survived despite a...