By Angela Chen
BGC Partners Inc. again raised its offer to fellow broker-dealer
GFI Group Inc., now offering $5.60 a share in a bid to thwart CME
Group's plans to buy the company.
BGC's new offer represents a 7% premium on the $5.25 a share
stock-and-cash deal announced by CME and GFI on Dec. 2. CME, which
originally offered $4.55 in cash-and-stock in July, raised its bid
last month to match BGC's all-cash offer.
In response, BGC increased its offer to $5.45 a share.
"Each of our offers has obviously been superior to those of CME
and GFI management," said BGC Chief Executive Howard Lutnick,
adding that it "defies all logic" that the GFI special committee
has refused to recognize this.
BGC and CME have been engaged in a bidding war for GFI over the
past half-year. 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 a
tender offer for the company in September, after taking a 13.5%
stake in GFI.
But GFI rejected the BGC bid in November, 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
instead.
GFI shareholders will vote on the CME deal at a special meeting
on Jan. 27.
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.
Shares of GFI closed Tuesday at $5.50 a share.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@dowjones.com
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