You don't replace it with anything. The variable being used
$vbulletin->options['timeformat'] will be in your vBulletin date/time format options.
If you want to learn about the "H:i" modifier characters, view this page:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
Have you tried
PHP Code:
$gnptime = vbdate('i', $gthread[lastpost]);
If you want to do it in a more complicated way it would be:
PHP Code:
$majormin = date('H', $gthread[lastpost]) * 60;
$minormin = date('i', $gthread[lastpost]);
$gnptime = $majormin+$minormin;