By Angela Chen
Brokerage firm BGC Partners Inc. has extended its tender offer
to acquire broker-dealer GFI Group Inc. following a low response
rate from investors.
BGC, which is seeking to thwart GFI's planned $580 million sale
to CME Group Inc., trumped that offer with a bid of about $675
million, but GFI rejected its approach, calling it "highly
conditional."
The tender offer's deadline has been extended to Dec. 9 from
Nov. 19. The 23.2 million shares that have been tendered, along
with the 17.1 million shares already owned by GFI, represent about
32% of GFI's outstanding shares.
"We are extending our offer to enable all shareholders to
carefully consider our superior offer," said Chief Executive Howard
Lutnick, who also runs financial-services firm Cantor
Fitzgerald.
Brokers such as CME, BGC and GFI act as middlemen for wall
Street's big banks. BGC, the second-largest broker by market
capitalization, went public with its intention to launch the tender
offer in September, after taking a 13.5% stake in GFI.
Under the CME deal, CME would keep GFI's energy-trading
platform, Trayport, and its pricing-and-data business, known as
Fenics, and sell the firm's brokerage-and-clearing operation back
to GFI executives.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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