A Chinese-led investor group is buying the Chicago Stock Exchange, also known as CHX, to eventually list Chinese companies on it, and also may use CHX’s technology and model to start an equities exchange where it is based in China, according to the CEO and chairman of the 134-year-old bourse.
John Kerin also told Reuters that under the new ownership, the exchange would have the funding for efforts like revamping its listings program."They like our strategy, and they want us to continue to execute on it," he said in an interview.
The investor consortium led by Chongqing-based Casin Enterprise Group said on Feb 5 it will acquire the exchange, which handles about 0.5 percent of the average daily trading volume in the US.
It would be the first purchase of a US exchange by investors from China, but not to a foreign entity. A unit of Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG acquired the International Securities Exchange in 2007.
Bloomberg reported that the deal values the exchange at less than $100 million, accordingto a person familiar with the matter, who asked to not be identified because the terms were not disclosed publicly.
The exchange said the deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, and willrequire the approval of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The acquisition also might be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which has jurisdiction to examine an acquisition of a US business that will result in foreign control. CFIUS is only interested when the transaction raises national security or critical infrastructure concerns.
"It is possible that CFIUS could be interested in this transaction because financial services can be considered part of the critical infrastructure of the US," Laura Fraedrich of Jones Day in Washington told China Daily.