How much is the Chicago Board of Trade really worth? The Chicago Mercantile Exchange upped its offer for the world’s oldest futures and options exchange, this time raising its bid by 14% to $11.7bn. This comes only days after the Merc offered a $485mn dividend to CBOT shareholders.
The rival bidder, Intercontinental Exchange still has an $11.8bn offer on the table and last week filed a preliminary proxy statement to stop a CBOT-Merc merger. Art-Deco façade included, CBOT has a market value of $10.9bn.
Howard Simons, president of Illinois-based Rosewood Trading Inc. said, `Whoever winds up buying the Board of Trade is going to have a moment of buyer’s remorse because it’s almost like they are forcing each other into overpaying.”
CME, Intercontinental Exchange May Sweeten CBOT Bids [Bloomberg]