CME CME Group Inc

CHICAGO, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and Dow Jones & Company today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement in which CME Group will take a 90 percent ownership interest and Dow Jones will take a 10 percent ownership interest in a new joint venture that will own the Dow Jones Indexes, which includes The Dow Jones Industrial Average and approximately 130,000 index properties. Pending approval by regulators and completion of customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010. "We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Dow Jones," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "Joining the resources and expertise of one of the world's leading marketplaces for equity index derivatives trading with a premier index provider is an exciting next step that will allow us to expand our index and market data offerings as well as to fuel growth opportunities in our equity index complex. We expect this transaction will allow us to further diversify our revenue streams, creating sustainable new value for our customers and shareholders." "Our majority interest in this venture represents an important new milestone in CME Group's transformation into a global financial services company, further diversifying our global product development capabilities and allowing us to reach new customers in both the institutional and retail market segments," said Craig Donohue, CME Group Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to continuing the strong relationships that Dow Jones has developed with clients and other leading exchanges that offer exchange traded funds, equity index options and structured products which complement CME Group's equity index contracts." Dow Jones & Company will contribute the Dow Jones Indexes business, valued at $675 million, to the joint venture. CME Group will contribute certain market data services, valued at $607.5 million, to the joint venture. The venture also will raise approximately $613 million in third-party debt which will be used to pay a $607.5 million distribution to Dow Jones. Terms of the agreement provide for the joint venture to license the Dow Jones name for the new index services business on a long-term basis. Ownership of the Dow Jones brand, including trademarked names, will remain with Dow Jones. The managing editor of The Wall Street Journal will continue to participate in decisions regarding constituent stock selection for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other index products. Building on the strong brand and market expertise of both CME Group and DJI, the partnership will also expand the global reach of its index creation, calculation services and market data businesses across complementary asset classes, including cash, derivatives and customized OTC markets. Barclays Capital is acting as financial advisor to CME Group, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as CME Group's legal advisor. About CME Group CME Group is the leading equity index derivatives marketplace, offering futures and options on key benchmark indexes that cover the spectrum of small-, medium- and large-cap indexes in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including the DJIA as well as the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Nikkei 225 Stock Average, MSCI EAFE, FTSE/Xinhua China 25. As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com/) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets. The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and its products can be found at http://www.cmegroup.com/. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Among the factors that might affect our performance are: increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities, including increased competition from new entrants into our markets and consolidation of existing entities; our ability to keep pace with rapid technological developments, including our ability to complete the development and implementation of the enhanced functionality required by our customers; our ability to continue introducing competitive new products and services on a timely, cost-effective basis, including through our electronic trading capabilities, and our ability to maintain the competitiveness of our existing products and services; our ability to adjust our fixed costs and expenses if our revenues decline; our ability to generate revenues from our processing services; our ability to maintain existing customers, develop strategic relationships and attract new customers; our ability to expand and offer our products in foreign jurisdictions; changes in domestic and foreign regulations; changes in government policy, including policies relating to common or directed clearing ; changes in government policy, including policies related to common or directed clearing and changes as a result of legislation stemming from the recent financial crisis, including the proposed regulatory reform of the over-the-counter derivatives and futures market and any changes in the regulation of our industry with respect to speculative trading in commodity interests and derivative contracts; the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights and our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others; our ability to generate revenue from our market data that may be reduced or eliminated by the growth of electronic trading or declines in subscriptions; changes in our rate per contract due to shifts in the mix of the products traded, the trading venue and the mix of customers (whether the customer receives member or non-member fees or participates in one of our various incentive programs) and the impact of our tiered pricing structure; the ability of our financial safeguards package to adequately protect us from the credit risks of clearing members; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; changes in price levels and volatility in the derivatives markets and in underlying fixed income, equity, foreign exchange and commodities markets; economic, political and market conditions, including the recent volatility of the capital and credit markets and the impact of current economic conditions on the trading activity of our current and potential customers; our ability to accommodate increases in trading volume and order transaction traffic without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; our ability to execute our growth strategy and maintain our growth effectively; our ability to manage the risks and control the costs associated with our acquisition, investment and alliance strategy; our ability to continue to generate funds and/or manage our indebtedness to allow us to continue to invest in our business; industry and customer consolidation; decreases in trading and clearing activity; the imposition of a transaction tax on futures and options on futures transactions; the unfavorable resolution of material legal proceedings and the seasonality of the futures business. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent periodic reports filed on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which are available in the Investor Relations section of the CME Group Web site. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. CME-G DATASOURCE: CME Group CONTACT: Media, Michael Shore, +1-312-930-2363, or Allan Schoenberg, +1-312-930-8189, ; or Investors, John Peschier, +1-312-930-8491, all of CME Group Web Site: http://www.cme.com/

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