CME Group Examining Sale Of Chicago Board Of Trade Building

CME Group Inc. (CME) said Monday the exchange operator is looking to sell the landmark Chicago Board of Trade building, following warnings last week that the company may leave Illinois to avoid a heavy corporate tax burden.

CME has hired Jones Lang LaSalle and Holly Duran Real Estate Partners LLC to market the historic building, which anchors Chicago's financial district, and aims to arrange a 15-year lease to preserve a spot for its physical trading floors.

"The sale of the Chicago Board of Trade north and south buildings will enable CME Group to continue to reinvest in our core derivatives business while still leasing about 150,000 square feet in the north and south buildings, including the agricultural trading floor," said Jamie Parisi, CME's chief financial officer, in a statement.

Parisi reiterated CME's commitment to "open outcry" trading, which accounted for about 20% of the 3.1 billion futures and options traded on CME's markets last year.

CME Executive Chairman Terry Duffy last week said that he and Parisi had been examining the possibility of relocating CME's corporate base outside Illinois, which in January sharply raised the corporate tax rate as part of efforts to put the state's finances in order.

The 80-year-old Art Deco building was designated a historic landmark in 1978 and is topped by a three-story sculpture of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; 312 750 4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com

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