IPO Filing: BGC Partners, Inc. (Cantor Fitzgerald)

BGC Partners, Inc. filed last night for an IPO of its shares to raise up to $460 million via share sales.  This will trade under the proposed ticker BGCP, and so far only Cantor Fitzgerald and Deutsche Bank were listed as underwriters.  The syndicate may grow before the IPO date, and that is not uncommon at all.

BGC is a full-service inter-dealer broker specializing in the trading of over-the-counter financial instruments and related derivative products.  It provides integrated voice and electronic execution and other brokerage services to many banks that regularly trade in capital markets, brokerage houses and investment banks for a broad range of global financial products, including fixed income securities, foreign exchange, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, futures, structured products and other instruments, as well as market data products for selected financial instruments.

This is the restructured inter-dealer operation of Cantor Fitzgerald and of course as many will know has mostly a newer workforce since losing the majority of its staff in the World Trade Center on September 11.  As of January 1, 2007, BGC had approximately 1,064 brokers across approximately 125 desks and has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Hong Kong, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Melbourne and Sydney and expect to open offices in Istanbul and Seoul in 2007.

Jon C. Ogg
February 9, 2007