London, 27th September: Lee Amaitis, Chairman of BGC Partners, the global inter-dealer brokerage firm, today presented donations of USD 125,000 each to Shane Warne, the legendary Australian cricketer and to England’s newest cricketing sensation, Kevin Pietersen.
These donations were as a result of BGC Partners’ first annual charity trading day held on 12th September 2005. A number of celebrities manned the phones, conducting trades with BGC’s clients – with all the day’s commissions being donated to charity.
Celebrities including Cherie Blair, Rory Bremner, Zara Phillips, Lawrence Dallaglio, Eddie Jordan and Gary Lineker were kind enough to donate their time to come down and support the main event. As a result of their efforts the commissions raised a total of GBP 2.2m for good causes including BGC’s nominated foundation – CLIC Sargent, the children’s Cancer charity.
The donation to Shane will go to the Shane Warne Foundation, which raises money for ill and underprivileged children and teenagers and has worked successfully in the past with other charities including the Make a Wish Foundation. The same amount will also be donated to Barnardo’s; Kevin Pietersen’s nominated charity.
Lee Amaitis made a personal pledge to Warne and Pietersen’s charities before the final Test match of the Ashes at the Brit Oval. He personally guaranteed Shane Warne USD 5000 per wicket taken in the match and USD 500 for every run Kevin Pietersen made. In view of the starring performance given by each, these pledges will total USD 60,000 to Warne and USD
86,000 to Pietersen for their respective charities.
Commenting on the success of the event, Lee Amaitis, said “The camaraderie shown by our staff, clients and honoured guests was tremendous, and I wish to thank everyone for a sterling effort in the aid of many worthy causes. We are delighted with the commitment and support of everyone involved and look forward to seeing the benefit that the funds raised will bring to CLIC Sargent and other selected charities.”
Pictures of the event will be available from the Getty Images website today www.gettyimages.com
About BGC Partners, L.P.
BGC Partners is a worldwide brokerage firm operating in the global fixed income markets, providing expert brokerage services for the world’s wholesale market participants. BGC Partners, named after fixed income brokerage innovator, B. Gerald Cantor, offers an array of voice and electronic brokerage services including price quotes and execution for a wide variety of fixed income and other wholesale products. With a concentration on building relationships and providing superior customer service and execution, BGC operates within the wholesale voice brokerage market with tried and tested strengths, based on 30 years of
brokerage experience and a strong relationship with eSpeed Inc., the leading electronic trading technology provider in the industry. BGC is headquartered in London, and has offices in New York, Milan, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney and Geneva.
For more information, please see www.bgcpartners.com.
About CLIC Sargent
CLIC and Sargent Cancer Care for Children merged in January 2005 to become the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity. CLIC Sargent wants to see a world where all children and young people with cancer live life to the full. CLIC Sargent is there for each family, caring every step of the way, providing individual support to children and young people with cancer or leukaemia and their families through its specialist care as well as funding both clinical and social research projects throughout the UK.
About the Cantor Foundation
The Cantor Foundation was created in 2003 to enable the Cantor Fitzgerald group of companies to raise money on behalf of charities in addition to its own Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.
About the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund was established on September 14, 2001 as a result of the tragedy at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The goal of the fund is to provide direct assistance to those who lost loved ones in the tragedy with 100% of the money donated to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund being disbursed directly to the families and loved ones.
About the Euro Brokers Relief Fund
The Euro Brokers Relief Fund has been established as a charitable organization for the purpose of providing financial assistance to the families of (and others economically dependent on) Euro Brokers staff and employees who were killed in the World Trade Center terrorist attack.
About The Shane Warne Foundation
The precise focus of The Shane Warne Foundation is to raise money for seriously ill and underprivileged children and teenagers by utilising his high profile as an Australian sporting icon. Unlike over charities, The Shane Warne Foundation will not directly provide help to kids, but will distribute monies raised to established charities.
About Barnardo’s
Barnardo’s is marking the centenary of the death of Dr Thomas Barnardo by celebrating the difference the charity continues to make to the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the UK. In pursuit of its vision Barnardo’s provides services in locations across the UK, directly reaching approximately 120,000 children and young people and their families, as well as having an impact on a significant additional number through a wide range of partnerships. Dr Barnardo’s belief that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children deserve a better start in life and the chance of a better future remains the philosophy of Barnardo’s in 2005. Whilst we no longer run orphanages of Victorian times – we do continue to protect, nurture and provide opportunities for children through 361 specialised projects in local communities across the UK.
For more information about Barnardo’s visit the website atwww.barnardos.org.uk
Contacts:
Graham Cowdrey
BGC Partners
+44 (0)20 7894 8150
Hugh Tallents
Public Relations
+44 (0) 20 7554 1421