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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

CME raises GFI offer to match BGC's hostile bid, (NASDAQ: CME), (NYSE: GFIG)

Futures market operator CME Group Inc raised its agreed-upon offer for derivatives broker GFI Group Inc to $5.25 per share from $4.55, matching inter-dealer broker BGC Partners Inc's hostile bid for GFI in October. CME's stock-and-cash offer follows BGC's all-cash tender offer of $5.25 per share for the 86.5 percent of GFI that it does not already own.For each share held, GFI stockholders can chose to receive cash or CME's Class A common stock based on the 10-day average closing price of CME's stock prior to the closing date of the transaction.Chicago-based CME plans to spin off GFI's wholesale brokerage business to a private consortium controlled by GFI management for $254 million, up from $165 million in its previous offer, and the assumption of about $72 million of unvested deferred compensation and other liabilities, the companies said.CME will retain GFI units, Trayport, a trading software provider in the European energy markets, and FENICS, a provider of analytics and risk management services for over-the-counter forex options markets.

CME Group Inc. (CME Group) offer a range of global products across all asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. Shares of CME traded higher by 1.18% or $1.0/share to $85.61. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $66.44 and as high as $86.40. On average, 1597640 shares of CME exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1713668.

GFI Group Inc. (GFI) is a provider of wholesale brokerage services, clearing services and electronic execution and trading support products for global financial markets. Shares of GFIG traded higher by 0.6% or $0.03/share to $5.03. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $2.98 and as high as $6.18. On average, 796838 shares of GFIG exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 165181.



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