Cleary Gottlieb represented Credit Suisse First Boston in its investment in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Founded in 1790, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange provides an electronic trading platform to trade options and stocks and has the ability to trade futures.
In the transaction, CSFB acquired a 5% equity stake in the Exchange and a performance linked warrant to acquire additional shares to bring CSFB’s total ownership stake up to 9.9%. Citadel Derivatives Group, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS joined CSFB in buying minority stakes in the Exchange. The investments by CSFB and the other banks were made possible by the demutualization of the Exchange in January 2004, when the Exchange converted from a seat-based to a share-based corporate structure, and reflect the Exchange’s aim of becoming a strong competitive force in the rapidly consolidating securities exchange marketplace.