Nex and CME’s advisers to land bumper £110m payout for negotiating £3.9bn takeover

Advisers who worked on the £3.9bn takeover of trading tech company Nex Group by CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange, are set to land a combined payout of almost £110m.

Nex’s financial and corporate brokers, lawyers and public relations (PR) advisers will get a combined £45m, filings today showed, while CME’s will get £63.3m.

The lucky brokers and financial advisers working for Nex included Citi, Evercore and Goldman Sachs, while Maitland took care of PR and Clifford Chance were the legal brains.

Read more: World’s largest futures exchange CME Group agrees deal to acquire Michael Spencer’s Nex for £3.9bn

CME meanwhile was backed by JP Morgan and Barclays, with Edelman doing the PR and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom on the legal work.

Today’s documents also show Michael Spencer, City veteran and Nex’s founder, will remain the boss of his business for up to six months after the deal completes. He will then become a special adviser and would be nominated to the CME board.

The CME-Nex deal, when finalised, will create the dominant operator in the $500bn-a-day US treasuries market. Shareholders have yet to approve the takeover, but will likely give it the green light at a meeting on 18 May.

The deal was agreed at the end of March, after analysts raised the prospect that rivals including the London Stock Exchange, the Singapore Exchange and Intercontinental Exchange could gatecrash the bid.

Read more: CME’s pursuit of Michael Spencer’s Nex Group could be gatecrashed by rivals