CME Group and Dow Jones & Company Launch Joint Venture of Dow Jones Indexes Business

CHICAGO, March 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CME), the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and Dow Jones & Company today announced the launch of the new joint venture company, CME Group Index Services LLC.  CME Group has a 90 percent ownership interest and Dow Jones has a 10 percent ownership interest in the new company, which continues to do business as Dow Jones Indexes and includes the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as approximately 130,000 index properties.

"There is an increased demand for index products and services in the marketplace, particularly outside the U.S.," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy.  "By combining CME Group's resources and expertise in index derivatives trading with Dow Jones' world-class benchmark indices, we will be well positioned to develop and expand our index and market data offerings, fueling growth opportunities across all asset classes."

"We are pleased to announce the completion of our new joint venture with Dow Jones, which will provide us with new growth opportunities across asset classes and around the world," said Craig Donohue, CME Group Chief Executive Officer.  "We look forward to building on the strong products and services, as well as client relationships that Dow Jones has developed.  Both institutional and retail customers globally rely on Dow Jones' benchmark indexes, particularly the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Together, we expect to create new opportunities for our customers by developing innovative new products and expanding our market data dissemination services to our global network of clients and exchange partners."  

Dow Jones & Company will contribute the Dow Jones Indexes business, valued at $675 million, and CME Group will contribute certain market data services, valued at $607.5 million, to the joint venture.  CME Group Index Services LLC, has issued $612.5 million in aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2018, with an annual coupon of 4.4% and an effective rate of 4.6%, which was used to pay a $607.5 million distribution to Dow Jones.  The notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by CME Group Inc.

About CME Group

CME Group is the leading equity index derivatives marketplace, offering futures and options on key benchmark indexes that cover the spectrum of small-, medium- and large-cap indexes in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including the DJIA as well as the S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Nikkei 225 Stock Average, MSCI EAFE, FTSE/Xinhua China 25.  

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk.  CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.  CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago.  CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort.  These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets. 

The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago.  NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com. 

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Among the factors that might affect our performance are: increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities, including increased competition from new entrants into our markets and consolidation of existing entities; our ability to keep pace with rapid technological developments, including our ability to complete the development and implementation of the enhanced functionality required by our customers; our ability to continue introducing competitive new products and services on a timely, cost-effective basis, including through our electronic trading capabilities, and our ability to maintain the competitiveness of our existing products and services; our ability to adjust our fixed costs and expenses if our revenues decline; our ability to generate revenues from our processing services; our ability to maintain existing customers, develop strategic relationships and attract new customers; our ability to expand and offer our products in foreign jurisdictions; changes in domestic and foreign regulations; changes in government policy, including policies relating to common or directed clearing; changes in government policy, including policies related to common or directed clearing and changes as a result of legislation stemming from the recent financial crisis, including the proposed regulatory reform of the over-the-counter derivatives and futures market and any changes in the regulation of our industry with respect to speculative trading in commodity interests and derivative contracts; the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights and our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others; our ability to generate revenue from our market data that may be reduced or eliminated by the growth of electronic trading or declines in subscriptions; changes in our rate per contract due to shifts in the mix of the products traded, the trading venue and the mix of customers (whether the customer receives member or non-member fees or participates in one of our various incentive programs) and the impact of our tiered pricing structure; the ability of our financial safeguards package to adequately protect us from the credit risks of clearing members; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; changes in price levels and volatility in the derivatives markets and in underlying fixed income, equity, foreign exchange and commodities markets; economic, political and market conditions, including the recent volatility of the capital and credit markets and the impact of current economic conditions on the trading activity of our current and potential customers; our ability to accommodate increases in trading volume and order transaction traffic without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; our ability to execute our growth strategy and maintain our growth effectively; our ability to manage the risks and control the costs associated with our acquisition, investment and alliance strategy; our ability to continue to generate funds and/or manage our indebtedness to allow us to continue to invest in our business; industry and customer consolidation; decreases in trading and clearing activity; the imposition of a transaction tax on futures and options on futures transactions; the unfavorable resolution of material legal proceedings and the seasonality of the futures business. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent periodic reports filed on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which are available in the Investor Relations section of the CME Group Web site. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE CME Group Inc.