MF Global is considering ditching a plan to offload its futures trading operation in favor of striking a deal for the entire company, The Post has learned.
The beleaguered broker-dealer, run by CEO Jon Corzine, is aiming to find a suitor for the firm by Sunday, sources said.
That said, MF Global is working on a number of other possible strategies to right the battered firm’s ship, the sources added.
A spokeswoman for MF Global declined to comment.
The New York-based broker dealer, which has seen its stock crushed over the past week due to revelations about $6.3 billion in exposures to European sovereign debt, has been looked over by a number of firms for a possible deal, according to sources.
Goldman Sachs, State Street, and the Australia-based Macquarie bank are among the firms that have eyed a deal with MF, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
People familiar with the bank’s plans tell The Post that MF has narrowed possible suitors down to four or five serious prospects and is pressing to strike a deal in the next 48 hours — at the latest.
One source familiar with the embattled broker dealer’s MF’s thinking said that officials at the firm have taken the b-word — bankruptcy — off the table and believe that a reasonable deal can be reached.
Such optimism comes in stark contrast to Wall Street’s decidedly dour outlook for the firm, played out via its battered stock price.
Since the beginning of the week, former New Jersey governor Corzine’s Wall Street firm has lost more than three-quarters of its equity value.
MF shares yesterday fell 16 percent to close at $1.20 — after hitting a 52-week low of 99 cents during the day. Shares have dropped 86 percent this year. Its bonds are trading at 41 cents, considered junk-bond levels.
The carnage has led many Wall Street watchers to assume that a bankruptcy for the commodities focused broker dealer firm was the most likely outcome after a brutal week.
That week, was highlighted by Moody’s Investors Service downgrading MF’s debt to junk bond status. Moody’s downgrade came after Fitch made a similar move.
Causing more concerns, Bloomberg also reported early yesterday that Corzine’s firm had tapped a $ 1.3 billion credit line led by Bank of America , JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Sources say that those same banks also have looked at a possible deal with MF Global.
Usually firms only tap their lines of credit in dire times.
Sources say Corzine, 64, is braced to work well into the weekend until some kind of deal is struck.
mark.decambre@nypost.com