CBOE Holdings Presents Strategic Initiatives to Enhance Share Value at Investor Day Conference

CHICAGO, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- At today's Investor Day Conference with stockholders and analysts, CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) senior management outlined the Company's strategic initiatives to enhance share value.  It also noted that through September of this year, CBOE repurchased $15 million of common stock, representing 599,900 shares at an average price of $24.82.  The shares were purchased as part of the Company's $100 million share repurchase plan, authorized in August.

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"We are focused on growing our business by leveraging our expertise in product innovation, trading technology and investor education.  This is our core mission and how we not only serve customers, but create stockholder value," CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO William J. Brodsky said.  "We are committed to pursuing select strategic opportunities that enable us to expand our product and service offerings and capitalize on our core competencies."  

CBOE also will continue to build on the successes of its volatility franchise and the all-electronic C2 Options Exchange (C2). C2, which provides the platform for over 350 individual equity and ETF options, yesterday added trading in SPXpm, an all-electronic S&P 500 product.  SPXpm provides the convenience of point-and-click trading and is ten times larger than SPY options, which significantly lowers the cost of accessing a p.m.-settled product.  

"SPXpm has received enthusiastic interest from retail investors and traders, online users who prefer the higher notional value S&P 500 contract, and OTC users seeking an exchange-traded alternative that minimizes counter-party risk," said Edward T. Tilly, CBOE Holdings Executive Vice Chairman.  "Additionally, our volatility products, anchored by the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) options and futures, continue to be a remarkable success story, and we are exploring ways to expand the volatility space even further."  

"We remain focused on driving top-line growth and holding down costs," said Alan J. Dean, CBOE Holdings Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "Our business model is a significant generator of cash, and we reported operating cash flow for the first six months of fiscal 2011 of $93 million, compared to $71 million for the same period last year.  Our strong debt-free balance sheet provides us financial flexibility.  Since our initial public offering in June 2010, we established a quarterly dividend, which we already increased 20 percent last quarter.  The cash dividend in addition to our $100 million share repurchase plan demonstrates our commitment to returning capital to stockholders."  

CBOE Holdings, Inc.

CBOE Holdings, Inc. is the holding company for Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), C2 Options Exchange and other subsidiaries.  CBOE, the largest U.S. options exchange and creator of listed options, continues to set the bar for options trading through product innovation, trading technology and investor education. CBOE offers equity, index and ETF options, including proprietary products, such as S&P 500 options (SPX), the most active U.S. index option, and options on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). Other products engineered by CBOE include equity options, security index options, LEAPS options, FLEX options, and benchmark products such as the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM). CBOE's Hybrid Trading System incorporates electronic and open-outcry trading, enabling customers to choose their trading method. CBOE's Hybrid is powered by CBOEdirect, a proprietary, state-of-the-art electronic platform that also supports C2 Options Exchange (C2), the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE), CBOE Stock Exchange (CBSX) and OneChicago. CBOE is home to the world-renowned Options Institute and www.cboe.com, named "Best of the Web" for options information and education.

CBOE is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with all trades cleared by the OCC.

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CBOE-C2

CBOE®, Chicago Board Options Exchange®, CBSX®, CBOE Stock Exchange®, CFE®, CBOEdirect®, FLEX®, Hybrid®, LEAPS®, CBOE Volatility Index® and VIX® are registered trademarks, and BuyWrite(SM), BXM(SM), SPX(SM), CBOE Futures Exchange(SM) and The Options Institute are servicemarks of Chicago Board Options Exchange, Incorporated (CBOE).  C2(SM), C2 Options Exchange(SM) and SPXpm(SM), are servicemarks of C2 Options Exchange, Incorporated (C2).  Standard & Poor's®, S&P®, S&P 500® and SPDR® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services, LLC and have been licensed for use by CBOE and C2.  

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements are those statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: legislative or regulatory changes; changes in law or government policy; increasing competition; loss of our exclusive licenses; decrease in trading volumes; an inability to introduce competitive new products and services; competitive pressures on our existing products, services and trading access fees; changes in price levels and volatility in the derivatives and equity markets; economic, political and market conditions; increases in our fixed costs and expenses; loss of existing customers; difficulty developing strategic relationships and attracting new customers; increased costs related to, or the loss of, intellectual property; rapid technological developments; increases in trading volume and order transaction traffic that we cannot accommodate; our ability to maintain our growth effectively; damage to our reputation and brand name; loss of market data revenue; detrimental changes to our fee structure; failure to effectively monitor and manage our risks; customer consolidation; and changes to the tax treatment for options trading.

More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.  

SOURCE CBOE Holdings, Inc.