Cleary Gottlieb is representing Morgan Stanley, SG Americas Securities and UBS as financial advisors to Intercontinental Exchange in its unsolicited proposal for an all-stock merger with CBOT Holdings, currently bound by a merger agreement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. CBOT and CME recently postponed their shareholders meetings from April to July to give CBOT more time to review the ICE proposal before the vote is taken on the CBOT-CME merger.
ICE operates a soft commodity exchange and is the leading global, electronic marketplace for trading both futures and over-the-counter energy contracts, which hedge forward price risk in energy markets.
CBOT is a global derivative exchange that provides a diverse mix of financial, equity and commodity futures and options-on-futures products.
CME brings together buyers and sellers on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on its trading floors. CME offers futures and options on futures in these product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange, agricultural commodities, energy, and alternative investment products such as weather, real estate and economic derivatives.