Reinforces presence in Brazilian market with purchase of leading inter-dealer broker

BGC Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: BGCP), a leading inter-dealer broker of financial instruments, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Liquidez DTVM Ltda. (“Liquidez”), a leading Brazilian inter-dealer broker of foreign exchange derivatives, commodities, credit, equities, and interest rate products.

Founded in 1985, Liquidez is amongst Brazil’s top inter-dealer brokers, accounting for 13.7% of all contracts traded in May 2009 on the BM&F segment of BM&FBOVESPA. The Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange (BM&F) recently merged with BOVESPA to create BM&FBOVESPA, the world’s fourth largest exchange by market capitalization according to the Financial Times.

The deal marks an important step for BGC Partners, Inc. as it looks to further increase its presence in Latin America. Brazil is the largest market in the region and continues to grow despite challenging conditions in the global financial markets, achieving over 5% per capita GDP growth in 2008 according to the IMF[1].

Lee Amaitis, Vice Chairman of BGC Partners, Inc. said: “We are very pleased to have finalized this deal with Liquidez. Liquidez has a long and impressive track record in Brazil and a highly professional team of brokers. Latin America is a key area of growth for BGC and Brazil is a particularly attractive market for us, given its continued growth and strong fundamentals. The Brazilian financial markets are also among the most broadly and cautiously regulated in the world[2]. The acquisition of Liquidez gives us a significant platform for future growth in the region.”

Arnaldo Cezar Coelho, President and CEO of Liquidez, added: “BGC’s global reach and sophisticated proprietary technology opens up tremendous opportunities for our Brazilian clients, giving them access to BGC’s extensive range of products and significant liquidity. BGC’s global customers will also now have access to local products on the Brazilian Exchange, increasing business for the Brazilian markets.”

_______________________________________________________
[1] http://indexmundi.com/brazil/gdp_per_capita_(ppp).html

[1] Source: BIS. http://www.bis.org/review/r090414b.pdf


About BGC Partners, Inc.

BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP) is a leading, fast growing, and global inter-dealer broker, specializing in the brokering of financial instruments and related derivatives products. BGC Partners provides integrated voice, hybrid, and fully electronic execution and other brokerage services to the world’s largest and most creditworthy banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, and investment firms for a broad range of global financial products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, futures, commodities, structured products, and other instruments.

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’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 16 offices in New York and London, as well as in Beijing (representative office), Chicago, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Nyon, Paris, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. For more information, visit http://www.bgcpartners.com. The Company’s corporate address is: BGC Partners, Inc., 499 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10022. The media, analysts, and investors can also subscribe to BGC Partners’ investor “Email Alerts” at the “Investor Relations” section of http://www.bgcpartners.com.


About Liquidez

With offices in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and 135 employees, Liquidez is a leading Brazilian financial institution and inter-dealer broker for products including foreign exchange derivatives, commodities, equities, and interest rate products. Founded in 1985, Liquidez has become one of the most important brokerage houses in the Brazilian financial market and is one of the most active players on the Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange. It has strict ethical guidelines and is absolutely focused on results and agility in its operations. Liquidez places strong priority on satisfying its clients, which include national and international banks, as well as other leading financial institutions, and has always emphasized the combination of investment and credibility in order to grow in the expanding Brazilian market. For information, please visit: http://www.liquidez.com.br/en/ (in English) or http://www.liquidez.com.br (in Portuguese.)