The Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday raised its bid for the Chicago Board of Trade for a third time and secured the backing of its target’s largest shareholder in an effort to fend off the hostile counteroffer from the Intercontinental Exchange.

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Anuj Gangahar

on CME’s new advantage in the battle for the Chicago Board of Trade

However, investors signalled that the four-month battle for the second-largest US futures exchange was not over as they pushed the CBOT share price to record levels above the CME’s “best and final offer”, which also continued to trail the indicative value of the ICE proposal.