CME to expand in London
THE Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is planning a rapid expansion in London, more than doubling its staff in the City and for the first time basing five senior managers in the capital, City A.M. can reveal.
The expansion involves signing a 15-year lease on a 38,000-square foot office in Land Securities’ One New Change shopping centre that could accommodate another 200 staff if needed.
CME did not publish the cost of the lease but the going rate of £53 per square foot suggests an investment of £2m per year.
The firm’s London staff are currently based in Watling House on Canon Street, but have “grown out of the space”, said managing director and head of the London office Bob Ray.
The managing directors based here will be Danielle Dycus, Allan Schoenberg, Roger Rutherford, Harriet Hunnable and Felix Carabello, and Andrew Lamb, chief executive of a new clearing and settlement operation in Europe that CME will launch this year.
Ray says the firm wants to “plant the flag in London. “From a timezone perspective, London is the centre: you can manage Asia and the US from here,” he said.