Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) announced Thursday it is acquiring Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s index platform. ICE will re-brand the platform as the ICE BofAML indices.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017, and the financial impact will not be material to its earnings, ICE says.
ICE says that it will continue to grow the index platform, which covers more than 5,000 fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) indices, through its ICE Data Services division.
“We are excited to build on ICE’s index services, which complement our leading fixed income pricing solutions in serving the demand for indexation as passive investing grows,” says Lynn Martin, president & COO of ICE Data Services, in a statement.
“We believe the BofAML Global Research FICC indices will offer customers more choice alongside the ICE U.S. Treasury indices and NYSE equity indices as comprehensive, trusted benchmarks. We look forward to working with our investment management customers to address their requirements for new tools to grow their AUM efficiently,” Martin adds.
“As the demand for independent indices rises, we are pleased to monetize this valuable set of benchmarks with a strategic owner,” says Candace Browning, head of global research at Merrill Lynch, in a statement.
Earlier this week, the London Stock Exchange announced a deal to acquire Citigroup Inc.’s fixed-income indexing and analytics businesses for US$685 million.