BGC plans to sell Trayport unit after receiving approaches

BGC Partners, the US interdealer broker, is looking to sell Trayport, one of its electronic trading venues, after being approached by several parties in recent months, its chief executive has said.

The New York group said on Wednesday it was willing to sell the unit it inherited with February's takeover of rival GFI Group, and hoped to have a deal completed by the end of the year. The asset was coveted by CME Group, the US's largest futures exchange by market capitalisation, but shareholders backed a rival offer by BGC to buy GFI earlier this year.

"It's a great product and has a great position in the marketplace. From the beginning [of bidding for GFI], we never felt that Trayport got the attention and valuation it deserved," Howard Lutnick, chief executive of BGC told FT Trading Room.

"We've been approached by multiple parties. Sometimes one makes a sad decision. I haven't as of yet been able to get the market to look inside and understand the company to increase shareholder value. I hope this will create attention and create interest."

BGC paid $6.10-per-share to take a controlling stake in GFI, valuing GFI equity at around $780m. The financial advisers for GFI last year had put a prospective valuation range of between $650m and $728m for the unit.

The asset is widely used by traders, brokers, utilities and resource companies to conduct voice and electronic trading and clearing of gas, coal, power and emissions in over-the-counter markets in Europe.

Mr Lutnick also confirmed that BGC would retain Fenics, the risk analytics business that the CME also attempted to buy last summer. "We will still keep it. Fenics has growth whose time has yet to come."

BGC also confirmed it expected to cut annual costs of $50m from the GFI deal by stripping out duplication of telecom lines, data centre costs, software suppliers and interest expenses.

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