By Adam Clark

CME Group Inc. (CME) said on Thursday that it has agreed the terms of a 3.9 billion pounds ($5.49 billion) offer for U.K. financial-technology company NEX Group PLC (NXG.LN).

Chicago futures-exchange giant CME said the offer comprises 500 pence in cash and 0.0444 new CME shares for each existing NEX share, equivalent to 1,000 pence a share. CME said this is a 49% premium to NEX's closing price as of March 15, before news of preliminary talks was revealed.

CME said the deal will create a leading global markets company, with significant efficiencies across futures, cash, and over-the-counter products. CME said it expects the acquisition to generate run-rate cost synergies of $200 million, to be fully achieved by the end of 2021. One-off costs to achieve efficiencies are estimated at $285 million.

The deal will also bring together a complementary combination of CME's exchange-traded derivative products and NEX's over-the-counter offering, while expanding CME's international market and client base across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, said CME.

NEX Chief Executive Michael Spencer will join the CME board and remain with the combined company as a special adviser. NEX's headquarters will be combined with CME's in Chicago, but the European headquarters of the merged company will remain in London.

CME currently has committed support for the deal from NEX's directors, who hold 17% of the company's shares. The deal is dependent on approval from NEX shareholders with at least 75% of the company's shares.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 29, 2018 02:39 ET (06:39 GMT)

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