Howard Lutnick’s BGC Extends Offer for Clearinghouse GFI

BGC Partners, the brokerage firm owned by Howard W. Lutnick, announced on Wednesday that it was extending the deadline on its offer for the GFI Group, the New York brokerage firm and clearinghouse that has been locked in a prolonged takeover battle.

The offer, for $6.10 a share, or about $778 million, had been set to expire at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Stockholders of GFI now have until Feb. 19 to tender their shares, BGC said in a news release.

BGC said that including its 13.4 percent stake in GFI, 43.3 percent of shares had already supported its offer, or about 70 percent of shares not owned by GFI executives or directors.

BGC emerged as a hostile bidder after GFI’s founder and chairman, Michael Gooch, agreed to sell his company to the CME Group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange, for $4.55 a share. At the same time, the companies announced that GFI’s wholesale brokerage and clearing businesses would be sold separately to GFI’s management, including Mr. Gooch, who has a 38 percent stake in GFI.

That side deal raised skepticism about a potential conflict of interest, and BGC entered the fray, touching off a bidding war that ended with BGC offering $6.10 a share and CME bidding $5.85 a share. A special committee of GFI recommended the BGC offer, but the board instead backed the CME bid.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the advisory group, recommended that shareholders reject the CME deal, asserting that they essentially had nothing to lose by holding out for an “economically superior offer.” Shareholders followed that advice and rejected the CME offer last week.

After the rejection, Mr. Lutnick quickly urged GFI shareholders “to tender their shares into our clearly superior offer, and we are prepared to move quickly to complete this transaction.”

GFI, for its part, issued a statement that it would “explore strategic alternatives with any and all interested parties to maximize shareholder value for all shareholders.”