Interdealer broker GFI Group Inc. (GFIG), responding to a $675
million hostile bid from rival BGC Partners Inc. (BGCP), said a
special board committee will review the offer.
GFI said its board continues to support a planned sale to CME
Group Inc. (CME) for $580 million in stock, and advised
shareholders not to take any action.
The company plans to advise stockholders of the committee's
formal position by Nov. 4.
Late Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that BGC would
launch a tender offer after an effort to strike a friendly deal
foundered. BGC launched the $5.25-a-share offer Wednesday.
BGC's all-cash offer is 15% higher than the $4.55-a-share price
that CME agreed in July to pay for GFI. Under that 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.
BGC, which is run by Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard
Lutnick, said in September that it planned a tender offer. GFI's
board said Sept. 15 that the offer was likely to lead to a
"superior proposal" under the terms of its agreement with CME. But
lawyers for the two sides in recent weeks hit an impasse in
negotiations over a confidentiality agreement, the Journal
reported.
- Liz Hoffman contributed to this article.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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