NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal antitrust regulators are letting McGraw-Hill Cos. and CME Group Inc. proceed with a venture that will bring the two best-known U.S. stock market indexes under joint ownership.
McGraw-Hill, owner of the Standard & Poor's 500, and CME Group, majority owner of Dow Jones Indexes, said after markets closed on Thursday that they received notice that the Department of Justice has finished reviewing the proposal.
The plans to form a joint venture company called S&P Dow Jones Indices remain subject to other closing conditions. In addition to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average, it would own other lesser-known S&P and Dow indexes.
The companies said they hope to complete the process by the end of this month. That's in line with expectations the companies cited when they announced the plans in early November.
McGraw-Hill and CME Group said then that the venture would generate more than $400 million in revenue from licensing agreements with mutual funds and other sources. Investors use the two companies' indexes as benchmarks for about $6 trillion in financial assets.
New York-based McGraw-Hill will own 73 percent of the index venture, with Chicago-based CME Group owning 24.4 percent through affiliates. News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Co. will own 2.6 percent.
CME Group is the 90 percent owner of a CME Group/Dow Jones venture that owns Dow Jones Indexes. Dow Jones & Co. sold that stake to CME Group in 2010, while Dow Jones retained a 10 percent interest.
Shares of McGraw-Hill rose 5 cents in afternoon trading to $42.55. Shares of CME Group, parent of markets such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, added $3.77 to $276.66.
