CBOE valued at $3 billion with 11.7 million-share proposed IPO

CBOE Holdings Inc., owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, said its initial public offering will total 11.7 million shares, valuing the exchange at about $3 billion.

The Chicago-based company will have 102.6 million shares outstanding following the deal, according to a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CBOE is converting 930 seats, or ownership stakes, into shares as part of a demutualization process. The last seat sold for $2.35 million on May 17, according to the company's website.

Based on that price and the expected share count, the CBOE would be worth about $3 billion, according to calculations by Jennifer Radman, an associate portfolio manager at Urbana Corp. and Caldwell Financial Ltd., Toronto-based investment firms that hold CBOE seats. CBOE expects members to vote on the proposed ownership restructuring this month and complete the conversion by the end of June, according to an April filing.

"My sense is that it'll get approved," said Thomas Caldwell, who owns 54 CBOE seats through his firms, Urbana and Caldwell Financial Ltd. "Everybody's ready to get this thing done. It's been a long, dragged-out process."

Caldwell, who purchased the last seat on May 17, said the votes must be in by May 21 and the exchange will hold a meeting later that day to go over them. CBOE is the largest U.S. options market and the last major member-owned bourse in America.