CME Group Announces Agreement to Sell Aurora, Ill. Data Center to CyrusOne

CHICAGO and DALLAS, March 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its suburban Chicago data center in Aurora, Ill. to CyrusOne, Inc., (NASDAQ: CONE) a global data center services provider, for $130 million.  The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

As part of the sale, CME Group will enter into a 15-year lease for data center space and will continue to operate its electronic trading platform, CME Globex, from the data center and will offer co-location services there.  CME Group will have the ability to expand co-location services within the leased space going forward.  The agreement also outlines the ways in which CyrusOne and CME Group will enhance the range of services available to their mutual customers through connectivity, hosting and data offerings. 

"CME Group is pleased to work with CyrusOne to maintain our co-location services while reducing our real estate holdings in line with our growth strategy," said CME Group Chief Financial Officer John Pietrowicz.  "This transaction allows us to enter into a long-term lease to meet our data center needs while focusing our resources on what we do best – running our exchanges, providing global risk management and offering a broad range of technology services.  Further, by entering into this relationship with CyrusOne, CME helps to ensure that our customers will have cost-efficient access to an even broader set of infrastructure and data services, including disaster recovery, cloud access, data storage and high-performance computing."

"The acquisition-leaseback of this facility offers unique advantages to our customers involved in the global financial markets by providing connectivity to those transacting on the CME Globex platform.  With this facility, and with CME Group as our tenant, we are excited to have the opportunity to expand the global risk management campus in Chicago – the preeminent financial services co-location hub in the industry - which will be a cornerstone of our unique and rapidly growing data center platform," said Gary Wojtaszek, president and CEO, CyrusOne. "This acquisition helps solidify our position in the financial services market and will create additional FinTech opportunities by offering a unique ecosystem to our financial, energy, enterprise, and cloud customers."

Through this acquisition, CyrusOne will increase the size of its portfolio to 33 data centers across US, Europe, and Asia, and strengthen its offerings within the financial services market.  The facility is approximately 428,000 square feet.  It features next-generation security, fire protection, and infrastructure enhancements.

Jim Rosenbloom and Mike Manuel of the law firm of Goldberg Kohn represented CME Group. DLA Piper advised CyrusOne.

About CME Group
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer 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, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange.  CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions.  These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

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.

About CyrusOne
CyrusOne (NASDAQ: CONE) specializes in highly reliable enterprise-class, carrier-neutral data center properties. The company provides mission-critical data center facilities that protect and ensure the continued operation of IT infrastructure for more than 940 customers, including nine of the Fortune 20 and more than 170 of the Fortune 1000 or equivalent-sized companies.

CyrusOne's data center offerings provide the flexibility, reliability, and security that enterprise customers require, and are delivered through a tailored, customer-service-focused platform designed to foster long-term relationships. CyrusOne's National IX platform provides robust connectivity options to drive revenue, reduce expenses, and improve service quality for enterprises, content, and telecommunications companies. CyrusOne is committed to full transparency in communication, management, and service delivery throughout its more than 30 data centers worldwide. Additional information about CyrusOne can be found at www.CyrusOne.com.

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group; CyrusOne

Related Links

http://www.cmegroup.com