Metropolitan to Purchase Division from Cantor

Metropolitan West Securities said Monday that it will purchase Cantor Fitzgerald’s securities lending operation.

The affiliate of Los Angeles-based money management firm Metropolitan West Financial said it will share profit from the acquired operations with Cantor Fitzgerald for two years.

The price of the transaction, which is expected to close this week, wasn’t disclosed.

The Cantor Fitzgerald division manages about $3.4 billion in customer assets.

Cantor Fitzgerald, a New York-based brokerage, lost about 700 employees at its World Trade Center headquarters in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman Howard Lutnick didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Louis Molinari, a managing director of Metropolitan West Securities, declined to comment.

The acquisition would boost Metropolitan West’s loans outstanding to about $35 billion.

The firm specializes in securities lending and short-term fixed-income asset management.

Securities lending is the temporary loan of a security from one institutional investor’s portfolio to support another client’s trading activities.

Metropolitan West Securities will retain three Cantor vice presidents who work in the securities lending division: Michael Tucci, Karen Costigliola and John Gaudioso. They will join the firm’s Short Hills, N.J., office.

Metropolitan West Financial is run by former Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. executives and ex-California state finance officials.

Former Vice President Al Gore was named its vice chairman last month.