KUALA LUMPUR (May 25): Bursa Malaysia Bhd said it has disposed of 50,000 shares of CME Group Inc (previously known as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc) Class A common stock for US$18.86 million (RM44.94 million).

The shares were sold in three transactions on March 8, May 13 and May 24 in the open market on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Bursa Malaysia said in a filling.
 
The proceeds of the sale, it said, will be used to fund its initiatives to ensure continuous development to the ecosystem and infrastructure of the exchange.

"The CME shares were initially acquired by Bursa Malaysia in 2009 as a result from a prior corporate exercise between Bursa Malaysia, CME Group Inc and CME Group Strategic Investment LLC," the bourse said.

"Bursa Malaysia has maintained the CME shares acquired as part of its investment securities to fund a put option that was exercised in 2019.

"Given the completion of the put option exercise on Dec 6, 2019, Bursa Malaysia has decided to dispose of the balance of the remaining shares to capitalise on the appreciating share price of CME Group," it added.

Following the disposal, the group is left with 104,250 shares in CME Group.

Bursa Malaysia added, the original cost of investment for the disposed CME Group shares was US$3.28 million (RM13.59 million).

According to CME's website, the group is the world's largest financial derivatives exchange, and trades in asset classes that include agricultural products, currencies, energy, interest rates, metals, stock indexes and cryptocurrencies futures.

Shares of Bursa Malaysia closed one sen or 0.12% lower at RM8.10, giving it a market capitalisation of RM6.56 billion.