Profits rise at Bats Global Markets ahead of $3.2 billion buyout

Lenexa-based Bats Global Markets Inc. earned $28.5 million in the third quarter, a 12.6 percent increase from a year ago.

The operator of the nation’s second-largest stock exchange had earned $25.3 million in July, August and September of 2015. Its recent profit equaled 29 cents a share, compared with 27 cents a share a year ago.

Bats is in the process of being acquired by Chicago-based CBOE Holdings, the owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, in a $3.2 billion deal that values Bats at $32.50 a share.

CBOE has said it intends to move its markets to Bats’ technology and that those operations would be based in Lenexa.

“We expect this transaction, once complete, to move the combined company into new asset classes, products and geographies, all powered by Bats market-leading proprietary technology,” Bats chief executive Chris Concannon said in the earnings announcement.

Revenues in the third quarter reached $108.8 million, compared with $104 million a year ago. Bats’ U.S. exchanges handled 20.8 percent of equity trading volume in the quarter, down from 21.7 percent a year earlier. Its volume is exceeded only by the New York Stock Exchange and is larger than that of Nasdaq.

Bats also operates equity exchanges in Europe as well as options and currency markets.

Bats’ purchase is expected to close in the first half of next year. That means Bats likely will report fourth-quarter results early next year and possibly results for its first quarter of 2017 before the merger is complete.

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 10:32 AM with the headline "Profits rise at Bats Global Markets ahead of $3.2 billion buyout."