By Angela Chen
Global brokerage firm BGC Partners Inc. said its all-cash offer
to buy GFI Group Inc. remains superior to that of rival CME Group
Inc., which on Tuesday increased its cash-and-stock offer to match
BGC's.
BGC and CME have been engaged in a bidding war for GFI over the
past few months. Brokers such as CME, BGC and GFI act as middlemen
for Wall Street's big banks.
In pushing the bid from his company, BGC Chief Executive Howard
Lutnick called his offer superior and said the company has made
progress in receiving necessary regulatory approval for the
acquisition.
BGC has offered about $675 million, or $5.25 a share, for GFI,
seeking to break up CME's plan to buy the company. BGC, the
second-largest broker by market capitalization, went public with
its intention to launch a tender offer for the company in
September, after taking a 13.5% stake in GFI.
That offer is scheduled to expire Dec. 9 and has already been
extended once after a low response rate.
GFI rejected the BGC bid last month, calling it "highly
conditional," due to an impasse over issues such as board seats. At
that time, the board members suggested going ahead with CME.
For its part, CME offered $4.55 a share in July but raised that
offer to $5.25 a share on Tuesday.
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@dowjones.com
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