MF Global Inc. will have new digs after Thanksgiving.
The broker-dealer operations of bankrupt MF Global will vacate its two offices in midtown Manhattan, taking space in downtown Manhattan, according to the spokesperson for the office of the trustee liquidating the unit.
About 100 employees in New York have been rehired after they were laid off Nov. 11 and will move from 717 Fifth Avenue and 55 East 52nd St. to cheaper space downtown, the spokesperson said. The trustee's office is currently negotiating the new lease and hopes to complete the move by Dec. 1. MF Global occupied two floors at the 52nd St. location and three at Fifth Avenue.
The spokesperson for the trustee's office said employees would stay on for a matter of "months" and declined to specify further. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said they will remain until February 15.
No one from senior management in the holding company has been rehired. Some employees from the holding company were brought over to the broker-dealer to assist with the wind down as the unit is being liquidated.
A source familiar with the matter said some of the employees who have been retained include Jon Bass, the former head of institutional sales and fixed income, Fred Demler, the former head of global commodities and Tom Connolly, global head of human resources. The trustee's office didn't have any immediate comment.
The rehired employees are making trades that have to be made, winding down the unit and tending to residual human resources tasks. There's a similar number of employees doing the same thing in the Chicago offices.
The spokesperson declined to comment on whether the rehired employees are assisting in the investigation of the missing $600 million in customer funds.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter said the trustee's office has fired some of the people who had been helping with that investigation. The source also said the trustee's office drew up the list of employees to be retained without much consultation with the parent company. Another source familiar with the matter said the list was "put together in an hour" and omitted qualified people who could have helped.
The spokesperson for the trustee's office declined to comment.
MF Global had leased 65,000 square feet at 717 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, according to Crain's, which quoted sources who said the company paid about $118 a square foot for that space. The spokesperson declined to comment on the price of the new space.
Write to Julie Steinberg at Julie.Steinberg@dowjones.com