KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): Bursa Malaysia Bhd has disposed of its remaining 75,250 shares of CME Group Inc (previously known as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc) Class A common stock, for US$16.37 million (RM67.93 million).

This came after the local exchange’s previous sale of 50,000 shares for US$10.86 million and 65,000 shares for US$14.19 million, as reported on May 25 and Oct 22.

In a filing on Tuesday (Oct 26), Bursa Malaysia said the 75,250 shares were sold in two transactions on Oct 22 (30,000 shares) and Oct 25 (45,250 shares) in the open market on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Following this, Bursa Malaysia does not hold any CME Group shares.

It said the proceeds of the latest sale will be used to fund its initiatives to ensure continuous development of the ecosystem and infrastructure of the exchange.

“The CME shares were initially acquired by Bursa Malaysia in 2009 as a result [of] a prior corporate exercise between Bursa Malaysia, CME Group Inc and CME Group Strategic Investment LLC,” it added.

“Bursa Malaysia said it 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 said.

Bursa Malaysia added that the original cost of investment for the disposed of CME Group shares was US$4.94 million.

CME 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 1.31% lower at RM7.53, giving it a market capitalisation of RM6.09 billion.