CME Group Inc. Completes Acquisition of NEX Group plc

Compass Lexecon was retained to represent CME Group Inc. in connection with its $5.4 billion acquisition of NEX Group plc. The deal combined the largest US-based futures exchange and a leading operator of cash trading platforms and post-trade services. In particular, the transaction combined the U.S. Treasury futures contracts traded at CME with NEX’s BrokerTec platform—the largest trading venue for cash U.S. Treasury securities. In response to the questions raised by the U.S Department of Justice and the UK Competition and Markets Authority that the merger might lead to unilateral effects in the provision of electronic trading platforms for U.S. Treasury products and questions that cash and futures U.S. Treasury products might be demand substitutes, a Compass Lexecon team lead by Mark Israel and Thomas Stemwedel presented econometric analyses that demonstrated that U.S. Treasury futures and cash U.S. Treasury securities are not economic substitutes. After an extensive investigation, which focused heavily on a series of submissions made by Compass Lexecon, DOJ and CMA closed their investigations. Mark Israel and Thomas Stemwedel were supported by a team including Ian MacSwain, Ben Spulber, John Hassett, Gloriana Alvarez and Piyal Hyder. We were retained by Ben Crisman, Ken Schwartz, Joseph Rancour, and Anjali Patel of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to assist CME in the merger review process. We also worked closely with Timothy Cornell and Brian Concklin of Clifford Chance, who were retained by NEX, and Tim Smith and Joey Graves of CME.