By Matt Jarzemsky
NYSE Euronext (NYX) has agreed to rent space on its New York
Stock Exchange trading floor to its planned buyer,
IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), according to a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
The move would see about 40 ICE futures traders relocate from
their current workplace a dozen blocks across lower Manhattan,
rival exchange operator CME Group Inc.'s (CME) New York Mercantile
Exchange. Regulators and shareholders are currently reviewing ICE's
$8.2 billion takeover deal for NYSE.
"It's an efficient way to utilize the existing physical exchange
space while supporting the role the floor community plays," an NYSE
spokesman said.
Both companies declined to comment on the terms of the deal. A
spokesman for Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), which owns the building,
couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
An NYSE spokesman said the deal was separate from the buyout,
but declined to comment on whether the acquisition had anything to
do with the lease coming together. ICE "requested assistance in
relocating its remaining trading floor following announcement of
the transaction," according to the NYSE filing. ICE's lease at
Nymex expires in June.
ICE would move its employees into the so-called "Blue Room,"
inside a building attached to the NYSE's headquarters and
stock-trading floor, at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, which
the Big Board operator does own. ICE acquired the futures-trading
operation in its 2007 purchase of the New York Board of Trade, part
of an aggressive expansion by the 12-year-old Atlanta company.
The Blue Room has housed NYSE stock and options traders, but has
been vacant or used as extra testing space in recent years as the
floor's role in securities trading has dwindled. Nymex, which
currently houses the ICE futures group, has likewise seen floor
activity decline. The ICE traders moving to the NYSE floor engage
in electronic trading, not open outcry.
A CME spokeswoman couldn't immediately be reached for comment
late Wednesday.
Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com