CME Group has completed its New York trading floor integration, a key milestone following its 2008 acquisition of NYMEX. The integration was completed in two phases, first the reconfiguration of the energy trading floor on 20 April, and today, combining the energy and metals futures and options trading rings onto one trading floor.
The combined New York trading floor, which represents CME Group’s continuing commitment to New York City as a financial center, is now home to open outcry trading for NYMEX and COMEX futures and options, including crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium. CME Group expects its integration of NYMEX to be substantially complete in Q4 2009.
“We have consolidated two major trading floors into one vibrant facility at our NYMEX world headquarters in Lower Manhattan,” says Terry Duffy, executive chairman, CME Group. “We are confident that combining several markets into our trading rings will give members and customers access to greater liquidity on our New York trading floor. We look forward to moving forward with the integration of our clearing systems in the third quarter of this year.”
“We are very pleased to have completed the successful integration of our New York trading facilities within nine months following our acquisition of NYMEX,” says Craig Donohue, chief executive officer, CME Group. “As a result of our successful integration efforts to date, we are on track to realize USD60 million in annual cost synergies by the end of this year. More importantly, we continue to see strong growth opportunities in CME Group’s listed energy and metals markets, as well as through CME ClearPort, which now facilitates central counterparty clearing services for approximately 700 different over-the-counter derivatives instruments.”
L.D.