(Crain’s) — The Chicago Board Options Exchange said Thursday it plans to pursue an initial public offering of shares next year, but the company could still be acquired before then, according to one of its biggest investors.
“I don’t think anything is precluded yet,” said Thomas Caldwell, chairman of New York-based Caldwell Asset Management, which controls 51 of the CBOE’s 930 seats. “If someone was going to come out (to make an offer), they would come out now or in the very near future.”
CBOE is one of the last remaining U.S. markets still owned by its members, a situation that CEOWilliam Brodsky has been trying for years to change in order to put the market on the same footing as its publicly traded rivals. Last month, he settled a long-running ownership dispute with a rival exchange, clearing the way for the board of directors’ decision Thursday to pursue an IPO.
The move appeared to put to rest speculation that the market — the biggest U.S. stock-options exchange — could be a takeover target, just months after futures exchange giant CME Group Inc.was reported to have put out feelers to acquire the smaller exchange. CBOE had previously also been in talks with at least one other potential acquirer. Such a deal, though less likely after the board’s endorsement of an IPO plan, is still a possibility, Mr. Caldwell said.
“CBOE must proceed with demutualization and getting the stock listed, because you can’t sit around with rouge and nylons waiting for someone to ask you to dance,” Mr. Caldwell said. But with the IPO not planned until the end of the second quarter of next year, “It could well be that someone comes in between now and then.”
A company controlled by Mr. Caldwell paid $2.5 million for a seat on Tuesday, down from a high of $3.3 million in June of last year.
CBOE plans to file registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned IPO in the first quarter of next year.
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