Source: Chicago Mercantile Exchange
CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange, announced today that its European headquarters will move operations to a new London office to accommodate its growing presence in the region. The new headquarters, located at Watling House, 33 Cannon Street, EC4, will be home to CME Europe, as well as FXMarketSpace, the world's first centrally-cleared, global foreign exchange (FX) marketplace jointly-owned by Reuters and CME, and Swapstream, a multilateral electronic trading platform for interest rate swaps and subsidiary of CME.
The three businesses will occupy 14,310 square feet (1,329m2) within the building. The transition to the new office is expected to be complete by mid- January 2007.
"This move marks a significant milestone in the growth of CME's global business and is a measure of our continued commitment to providing a global derivatives marketplace," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "As our presence continues to grow in the region, we needed to invest in the appropriate space to enable us to build on the momentum we have established."
"CME offers some of the world's most successful and liquid benchmark products on our CME Globex(R.US) electronic trading platform and we have made significant strides in bringing these contracts to a wider audience throughout Europe and Asia," said CME Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "Bringing CME, FXMarketSpace and Swapstream together in one location will allow all facets of CME to work together to develop innovative products and services, both in the exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives markets, which meet the needs of our growing European customer base."
"Our growing presence in Europe, which necessitates the office move announced today, demonstrates our continued commitment to serving the needs of the global marketplace," said Arman Falsafi, CME Managing Director, Europe and Middle East. "Our London-based team continues to work closely with banks, hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, brokers and clearing members throughout the region to make our existing global benchmark products and new offerings attractive and accessible."
CME has had a presence in London since 1979, when its first office opened in Throgmorton Street with five members of staff, to support CME members in the region. The launch of CME Globex(R.US), the exchange's global electronic trading platform, in 1992 added impetus to CME's growth, offering virtually 24-hour trading to users around the world. In 2002, CME opened its London Telecommunications Hub to provide greater efficiencies for connectivity to London-based customers. Today, CME operates four other hubs throughout Europe and one in Singapore.
Holly Duran and Rich Schulz of Holly Duran Real Estate Partners, LLC together with their local London co-broker Paul Bennett of Nelson Bakewell, negotiated the transaction on behalf of CME Inc. CME's real estate lawyers in London were Lucy Keeble and Ian Nisse of Shearman & Sterling LLP, www.shearman.com. The design and construction firm responsible for the project is the Modus Interiors Ltd.