Bats Auction Mechanism (BAM) Launches Successfully on EDGX Options Exchange

Bats Global Markets, Inc. (Bats: BATS) announced today the successful launch of the Bats Auction Mechanism (BAM), providing price improvement opportunities for customer orders. The company began rollout of the new functionality on the EDGX Options Exchange on January 4th and completed it, with no disruption to customers, on January 10th.

The company’s two U.S. options exchanges, EDGX and BZX, set a combined market share record for full-year 2016 with 11.1% vs 9.6% in 2015, while remaining the market leader in single-leg equity options trades with 17.4% market share.

“We’re pleased to announce this functionality, in response to significant customer demand,” said Kapil Rathi, Senior Vice President, Options Business Strategy, at Bats. “While designing BAM, we worked with all of our customers and incorporated their feedback to bring the best auction process available in the options industry today, focusing on various issues and gaps that other exchanges haven’t addressed so far. Partnering with clients drives the Bats business and, as we prepare to join with the CBOE team, we look forward to unveiling additional innovations in the future.”

In September, Bats Global Markets entered an agreement to be acquired by CBOE Holdings. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2017, pending customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

BAM is an options auction process that provides Members with an opportunity to improve the price of their customer orders. The functionality alerts all Members at the start of an auction in order to maximize the price improvement opportunity and allows agency orders to trade against the contra party specified by the initiating Member or other Members responding to the auction. BAM was approved by the SEC on January 3rd.

A new feature called the Priority Quote Allocation was also launched in January. This functionality provides incentives for a broader range of participants to maintain two-sided quotes, which helps to keep tighter bid-ask spreads in continuous market trading.

BAM runs continuously throughout the trading day solely on EDGX, the pro-rata Bats’ options market launched in November 2015.

About Bats Global Markets, Inc.

Bats Global Markets, Inc., is a leading global operator of exchanges and services for financial markets, dedicated to Making Markets Better. We are the second-largest stock exchange operator in the U.S., operate the largest stock exchange and trade reporting facility in Europe, and are the #1 market globally for ETF trading. We also operate two fast-growing U.S. options exchanges. In the global foreign exchange market, we operate Hotspot, and ETF.com, a leading provider of ETF news, data and analysis, is a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in New York, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Singapore and Quito. Visit bats.com and @BatsGlobal for more information.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains certain statements regarding intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future of CBOE Holdings, Inc. (“CBOE”) and Bats Global Markets, Inc. (“Bats”), which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” “plans,” “seeks,” “projects” or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs, such as “will,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “may” or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which are not statements of historical fact or guarantees or assurances of future performance. However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.

Actual results could differ materially from those projected or forecast in the forward-looking statements. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, without limitation, the following risks, uncertainties or assumptions: the satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the consummation of the proposed transaction, including, without limitation, the receipt of stockholder and regulatory approvals (including clearance by antitrust authorities necessary to complete the proposed transaction) on the terms desired or anticipated; unanticipated difficulties or expenditures relating to the proposed transaction, including, without limitation, difficulties that result in the failure to realize expected synergies, efficiencies and cost savings from the proposed transaction within the expected time period (if at all), whether in connection with integration, combining trading platforms, broadening distribution of offerings or otherwise; CBOE’s ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating and obtain financing on the anticipated terms and schedule; risks relating to the value of CBOE’s shares to be issued in the transaction; disruptions of CBOE’s and Bats’ current plans, operations and relationships with market participants caused by the announcement and pendency of the proposed transaction; potential difficulties in CBOE’s and Bats’ ability to retain employees as a result of the announcement and pendency of the proposed transaction; legal proceedings that may be instituted against CBOE and Bats following announcement of the proposed transaction; and other factors described in CBOE’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 19, 2016, CBOE’s quarterly report for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on November 8, 2016, CBOE quarterly report for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on August 2, 2016, Bats’ final prospectus, which was filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 424(b) on April 15, 2016, Bats’ quarterly report for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on August 5, 2016, Bats’ quarterly report for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2016, which was filed with the SEC on November 8, 2016, and other filings made by CBOE and Bats from time to time with the SEC. The factors described in such SEC filings include, without limitation: the loss of CBOE’s rights to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations (and changes thereto), including obligations under agreements with regulatory agencies and potential conflicts between self-regulatory responsibilities and for-profit status; increasing competition in the industries in which CBOE and Bats operate; CBOE’s and Bats’ ability to operate their respective businesses without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting their respective intellectual property rights; decreases in trading volumes or a shift in the mix of products traded on CBOE’s or Bats’ exchanges; each of CBOE’s and Bats’ ability to accommodate trading volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of their respective systems; CBOE’s and Bats’ ability to protect their respective systems and communication networks from security risks and breaches; the ability to manage CBOE’s and Bats’ growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively, including the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of past acquisitions; the ability to adapt successfully to technological changes to meet customers’ needs and developments in the marketplace; and the impact of legal and regulatory changes and proceedings, whether or not related to the proposed transaction.

Neither CBOE nor Bats undertakes, and each of them expressly disclaims, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

Additional Information Regarding the Transaction and Where to Find It

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. This press release is being made in respect of the proposed merger transaction involving CBOE and Bats. The issuance of shares of CBOE common stock in connection with the proposed merger will be submitted to the stockholders of CBOE for their consideration, and the proposed merger will be submitted to the stockholders of Bats for their consideration. In connection therewith, CBOE filed with the SEC on December 12, 2016 a definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus dated December 9, 2016, and each of the companies may be filing with the SEC other documents regarding the proposed transaction. CBOE and bats commenced mailing of the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus to CBOE stockholders and Bats stockholders on December 12, 2016. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR ANY INVESTMENT DECISION, INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF CBOE AND/OR BATS ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus, any amendments or supplements thereto and other documents containing important information about each of Bats and CBOE, as such documents are filed with the SEC, through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by CBOE will be available free of charge on CBOE’s website at http://ir.cboe.com/financial-information/sec-filings.aspx under the heading “SEC Filings” or by contacting CBOE’s Investor Relations Department at (312) 786-7136. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Bats will be available free of charge on Bats’ website at http://www.bats.com/investor_relations/financials/ under the heading “SEC Filings” or by contacting Bats’ Investor Relations Department at (913) 815-7132.

Participants in the Solicitation

CBOE, Bats, their respective directors and executive officers, certain other members of CBOE’s and Bats’ respective management and certain of CBOE’s and Bats’ respective employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction. Information about the directors and executive officers of CBOE is set forth in its proxy statement for its 2016 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 6, 2016, and its annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, which was filed with the SEC on February 19, 2016, and information about the directors and executive officers of Bats is set forth in its final prospectus in connection with its initial public offering, which was filed with the SEC on April 15, 2016. Each of these documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, are contained in the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus and may be available in other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

Contacts:

Bats Global Markets, Inc.
MEDIA
Hannah Randall, +1-646-856-8809
New York,
or
Randy Williams, +1-212-378-8522
New York
comms@bats.com
or
INVESTORS
Mark Marriott, +1-913-815-7132
Kansas City
ir@bats.com

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