BGC Extends Tender Offer for GFI Amid Low Response Rate

   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.

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