CME Group Prices $750 Million Aggregate Principal Amount of Notes

CHICAGO, Sept. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) today announced it priced an underwritten public offering of $750 million aggregate principal amount of 3.00% notes due Sept. 15, 2022.  The offering is being made under CME Group's existing shelf registration statement and is expected to close on Sept. 10, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

CME Group intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with cash on hand, to retire at maturity its outstanding 5.40% notes due August 2013.  Although CME Group does not currently anticipate doing so, it may use some or all of the net proceeds from the offering for other, general corporate purposes.

This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.  Any offers of the notes will be made exclusively by means of a prospectus and prospectus supplement.

Bookrunners for the transaction include Barclays Capital Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, UBS Securities LLC, BMO Capital Markets Corp., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Lloyds Securities Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA), Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC.  Barclays Capital Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and UBS Securities LLC are acting as representatives of the underwriters.  Copies of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained by contacting Barclays Capital Inc. at 1-888-603-5847, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated at 1-800-294-1322 or UBS Securities LLC at 1-877-827-6444, ext. 561-3884.

CME Group offers 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 providers in the world, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered 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, implementation and maintenance 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, including our ability to provide effective services to the over-the-counter market; our ability to adjust our fixed costs and expenses if our revenues decline; our ability to maintain existing customers, develop strategic relationships and attract new customers; our ability to expand and offer our products outside the United States; changes in domestic and non-U.S. regulations; changes in government policy, including policies relating to common or directed clearing and changes as a result of legislation stemming from the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act; 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, the state of the overall economy or declines in subscriptions; changes in our average 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, including our ability to prevent errors and misconduct and protect our infrastructure against security breaches and misappropriation of our intellectual property assets; changes in price levels and volatility in the derivatives markets and in underlying fixed income, equity, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodities markets; economic, political and market conditions, including the volatility of the capital and credit markets and the impact of economic conditions on the trading activity of our current and potential customers stemming from the continued uncertainty in the financial markets; our ability to accommodate increases in trading volume and order transaction traffic without failure or degradation of performance of our trading and clearing 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 or user fee on futures and options on futures transactions and/or the repeal of the 60/40 tax treatment of such 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.

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group