CHICAGO, Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it has completed its acquisition of the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT), the leading futures market for hard red winter (HRW) wheat. The completion of the acquisition will provide both CME Group and KCBT customers with greater capital efficiencies, new trading opportunities and additional products to manage their global wheat price risk.

“We’re pleased to complete this transaction, combining KCBT Hard Red Winter Wheat products with our deep and liquid CBOT Soft Red Winter Wheat futures and options markets,” said CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy. “The integration of these two global wheat benchmarks will provide new trading opportunities to commercial grain market participants, wheat traders and customers who continue to rely on these tools to manage their price risk.”

“The addition of KCBT to CME Group will provide significant value to the customers, shareholders and members, beginning on day one,” said CME Group CEO Phupinder Gill. “Starting today, we’re integrating hard red winter wheat futures and options into our suite of already deep and liquid grain and oilseed products. Moving forward, we’ll work with customers to grow existing KCBT and CBOT Wheat futures and options, while developing new and innovative products that will benefit customers of both varieties of wheat.”

Beginning today, CME and CBOT members and KCBT permit holders will immediately benefit from the ability to trade each other’s wheat futures and options products in a more cost-effective manner on the CME Globex electronic trading platform. Following the integration of clearing services, customers will benefit from cross-margining and other capital efficiencies.

Beginning Monday, December 10, customers will be able to take advantage of the implied spread between these two distinct wheat futures products. The implied inter-exchange KCBT-CBOT Wheat futures spread will be available for trading on CME Globex.

CME Group will begin integrating KCBT business operations and clearing services in order to achieve efficiencies for members, customers and shareholders. The timetable for integration includes:

• Ongoing operation of the KCBT trading floor for at least six months;
• Integration of clearing systems (specific timeline to be announced Q1 2013); and
• Maintenance of a committee made up of KCBT market participants to advise on HRW wheat contract terms and conditions for at least three years.

About CME Group

As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (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 world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered 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 www.cmegroup.com.

Forward-looking Statements
Statements in this news 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. 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 Annual Report on Form 10-K, which can be obtained at its Web site at http://www.sec.gov. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE CME Group