Large exchange groups continue to make global investments as they seek to gain scale.

Exchange operators in the U.S. and Canada have made investments in foreign entities in recent months as an alternative to full-on consolidation.

Chicago’s CME Group recently increased its stake in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to 50%, which will allow the Middle Eastern bourse to continue growing its operations.

“The deepening of our relationship with DME further serves our strategy of providing risk managers and investors with access to key benchmark products via our global distribution networks,” said Bryan Durkin, CME Group chief operating officer and managing director.

As part of the restructuring of the DME’s equity shareholding, a recapitalization arrangement will increase the stake in DME held by CME’s Nymex unit from 25% to 50%. Oman Investment Fund will increase its holding to 29%; a subsidiary of Dubai Holding will retain 9%; and 12% will be held on a non-voting basis by strategic investors, including Vitol, Shell, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Concord Energy.

The Dubai Mercantile Exchange is a commodity exchange based in Dubai. It was launched in 2007 and uses CME’s Globex platform.

TMX Group recently announced that they have acquired Sydney, Australia’s Razor Risk Technologies, which provides credit risk software to clearing houses, stock exchanges, financial institutions and brokerages. In addition, 91.2% of the shares in Razor were tendered, allowing TMX to acquire the company in full. It intends to complete the acquisition by Feb. 28. TMX also recently took a 16% minority stake in the Bermuda Stock Exchange, making it one of the largest shareholders of the offshore exchange.

Exchanges have also been investing in their internal infrastructure. As the global capital markets become more interconnected, exchange operators have needed to expand their connectivity capabilities. Deutsche Borse plans to gradually roll out an expansion of its global network over the next several months. The announcement after it said it would launch a new trading system on its Eurex derivatives trading platform.