CBOT holders OK Chicago Merc merger

CHICAGO, July 9 (UPI) -- CBOT Holdings Inc. shareholders approved a merger with Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. Monday, creating the world's largest futures exchange.

CBOT Chairman Charles Carey and CME Chairman Terry Duffy said shareholders "overwhelmingly" approved the $11.8 billion deal, nine months in the making after a competing $11.8 billion bid from IntercontinentalExchange Inc. of Atlanta in March.

Detailed voting results were not immediately available.

The merger, which could be completed as early as this week, will create an exchange that will control 95 percent of futures and options contracts tied to interest rates, stock-index futures, currencies and commodities, the exchanges said.

The Chicago Merc's original offer, in October, was 0.3006 of a share for each CBOT share. It increased that to 0.35 a share in May before its final increase Friday.

The winning offer gives CBOT shareholders 0.375 of a Merc share plus $9.14 cash for every CBOT share -- about 30 percent more than the original bid.

ICE, which entered the fray in mid-March, decided over the weekend not to raise its bid again after previously sweetening its proposal. It said it was not worth trying to pay more for CBOT, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.