NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bermuda-based MF Global Ltd., the futures and options broker, took a $79.9 million non-cash charge against earnings, resulting in a wider quarterly net loss.

The fiscal fourth-quarter net loss expanded to $111.7 million, or 98 cents a share, from $83.1 million, or 69 cents, a year earlier, the company said yesterday.

Excluding costs such as restructuring expenses, MF Global earned four cents a share in the period ended March 31. On that basis, the company was expected to earn seven cents, according to a Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts.

"This is all about goodwill and what you pay for companies," said chief executive officer Bernard Dan, discussing the non-cash charge in a telephone interview yesterday before the results were released. He said the firm hired 22 fixed-income traders in the quarter to expand into US Treasury and agency debt markets.

"This whole company has repositioned itself in a measured but aggressive manner," Dan said. "I feel very good about the fact that we're trying to diversify our revenue."

The $79.9 million charge came after the firm reassessed how it books intangibles including goodwill.

Net revenue, which excludes interest and transaction-based expenses, fell 37 percent to $256.7 million last quarter, from $407.9 million a year earlier. Total exchange-traded volume declined 34 percent to 386.2 million contracts.

Interest income and principal transaction revenue totaled $26.5 million, down 67 percent from a year earlier. The company earns a return on interest based on how much money it invests, lends and holds for clients.

Client funds dropped 23 percent to $11.8 billion from last year's fourth quarter when the firm held $15.3 billion in customer money.

MF Global, formerly the brokerage unit of Man Group Plc, the world's largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, rose 51 cents, or 9.4 percent, at $5.94 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. The shares have almost tripled in value this year after falling 94 percent in 2008.

Dan, 48, the former CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, took over MF Global in October from Kevin Davis, who was with the company for 17 years, after its stock dropped more than 90 percent. The decline in MF Global's market value came after a $141.5 million wheat trading loss, earnings that fell short of expectations and confusion over financing deals that were done to repay debt.

MF Global is involved in discussions to join the 16 so-called primary dealers that trade directly with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and are required to bid at auctions. Dan said the expansion into fixed-income markets was related to its application.

"We're still in the midst of it," he said, declining to comment further. MF Global, which has its operational headquarters in New York, earns fees by executing trades and clearing transactions to ensure the delivery of commodities, equities or cash to its customers.