NEW YORK and LONDON – (August 19, 2010) – BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP), a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of various assets and businesses of Mint Partners and Mint Equities through BGC Brokers, L.P., with over 100 brokers from Mint’s international business joining BGC.
Mint will conduct business as usual and maintain its unique brand name and market identity as a division of BGC. Teams from Mint and BGC have worked together closely to ensure that Mint’s clients find the transition operationally to be seamless.
Shaun Lynn, President of BGC Partners, said, “We are delighted to welcome Richard Barnett, Timothy Bullman, and the highly talented Mint group as part of BGC. Selective acquisitions, hiring experienced brokers, and investing in our proprietary technology have been key drivers of BGC’s growth. With the addition and continuing growth of the Mint brand, and the opportunity to offer our globally-recognized, world-class technology platform to our new colleagues, we expect to augment our offerings to clients and expand our customer relationships.” Mr. Lynn noted that Mint’s co-founders, Messrs. Barnett and Bullman, remain co-CEOs of the Mint business and also have become Senior Managing Directors of BGC.
In a joint statement, Messrs. Barnett and Bullman said, “From our initial focus on the institutional equities market when we created Mint six years ago, the firm’s scope has steadily broadened to serving clients across credit, rates, foreign exchange, commodities and energy products. BGC’s strong balance sheet, global presence and preeminent technology platform, which were key factors in our decision to become part of BGC, create a tremendous opportunity to bring new capabilities and levels of service to our loyal clients worldwide.”
Cantor Fitzgerald acted as an adviser in connection with this transaction.
About BGC Partners, Inc.
BGC Partners is a leading global intermediary to the wholesale financial markets, specializing in the brokering of a broad range of financial products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commodities, futures, structured products and other instruments. BGC Partners also provides a full range of services, including trade execution, broker-dealer services, clearing, processing, information, and other back office services to a broad range of financial and non-financial institutions. BGC Partners’ integrated platform is designed to provide flexibility to customers with regard to price discovery, execution and processing of transactions, and enables them to use voice, hybrid, or, where available, fully electronic brokerage services in connection with transactions executed either OTC or through an exchange. Through its eSpeed and BGC Trader brands, BGC Partners uses its proprietary, built, and paid for technology to operate multiple buyer, multiple seller real-time electronic marketplaces for the world’s most liquid capital markets.
The Company’s pioneering suite of tools provides end-to-end transaction solutions for the purchase and sale of financial products over its global private network or via the Internet. BGC Partners’ neutral platform, reliable network, straight-through processing and superior products make it the trusted source for electronic trading for the world’s largest financial firms. Through its BGCantor Market Data brand, the Company also offers globally distributed and innovative market data and analysis products for numerous financial instruments and markets. BGC Partners’ customers include many of the world’s largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments and investment firms. BGC’s unique partnership structure and extensive employee ownership create a distinctive competitive advantage among its peers. Named after fixed income trading innovator B. Gerald Cantor, BGC Partners has 20 offices, located in New York and London, as well as in Beijing, Chicago, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Moscow, Nyon, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Sarasota, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. For more information, visit https://bgcpartnersprd.wpengine.com.
Discussion of Forward-Looking Statements by BGC Partners
Statements in this press release regarding BGC Partners’ business that are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see BGC Partners’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors set forth in our public filings which we incorporate by reference, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, as filed with the SEC on March 16, 2010 and any updates to such risk factors contained in subsequent 10-Q filings.
Contacts
Media:
Robert Hubbell Florencia Panizza
+ 646-226-9125 + 212-294-7938
rhubbell@bgcpartners.com fpanizza@bgcpartners.com
Investors:
Jason McGruder
+ 212-829-4988
jmcgruder@bgcpartners.com