According to a company announcement issued by the CME Group (NYSE:CME), the company has decided to increase its offer for the purchase of the GFI Group after BGC Partners boosted its own by $0.20 last week.
The increased offer for GFI Group Stockholders amounts to $5.85 per GFI Group share, which matches the price proposed by New York-based BGC Partners. Should the offer be approved by shareholders, the consideration will be payable to GFI Group stockholders in a mix of the CME Group's shares and cash.
This marks yet another step in the 'alphabet bidding war' which has engulfed GFI Group since July 2014. So far, the offers are marking up close to 88% over the closing price on July 29th This new price offer represents more than an 88% premium above the closing price on the last day of trading before the first CME Group transaction announcement.
As part of the revised offer, the GFI Management Consortium and certain Affiliates have now agreed to forego a total of approximately $40 million in consideration that would otherwise be payable to them in the transaction. CME is passing along this foregone consideration in its entirety to GFI stockholders and is not contributing any additional consideration as part of this revised offer.
The transaction remains subject to the approval of GFI Group's stockholders voting on the prospects for a CME transaction on January 27, 2015.
