GFI Group Shareholders Should Vote Against Proposed Merger With CME, Says ISS

Institutional Shareholder Services, a leading proxy advisory service, has recommended on Wednesday that GFI Group Inc GFIG shareholders reject the proposed merger agreement with CME Group Inc CME, given $5.85 stock and cash offer is inferior to BGC Partners, Inc. BGCP $6.10 all-cash proposal.

ISS commented the following regarding CME Group's proposed offer:

“As the proposed transaction is economically inferior to the unsolicited all-cash competing offer, yet it is not at all clear that unaffiliated shareholders incur any greater downside risk in holding out for the economically superior offer from this ongoing bidding war, shareholders should vote AGAINST the proposed transaction on its current terms and if that offer does not improve to at least parity with the BGC bid, tender into the BGC offer instead.”

Shares of all three mentioned companies are up more than 1 percent on the day.