London Stock Exchange Says Its Merger Is Unlikely to Win Approval -<br />LONDON — The London Stock Exchange Group said late on Sunday<br />that European regulators were unlikely to approve its merger with Deutsche Börse, which would have created a European heavyweight in a rapidly consolidating industry.<br />The London exchange said regulators at the European Commission had made the sale of its majority stake in MTS, an electronic platform for trading European government bonds<br />and other fixed income products, a condition for approval of the Deutsche Börse transaction.<br />believes that the commission is unlikely to provide clearance for the merger.”<br />The London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse had hoped to create a potential European champion by combining stock exchanges in Britain, Germany<br />and Italy, as well as several of Europe’s largest clearinghouses.<br />In hopes of winning approval for the deal, the London Stock Exchange Group said in December<br />that it was in exclusive talks with Euronext over the sale of LCH S. A., the French operating arm of the LCH.<br />On Sunday, the London exchange said that the European Commission had unexpectedly raised new<br />concerns this month about the sale of LCH S. A. in relation to access to bond trading<br />The London exchange said at the time that it was seeking to “address proactively antitrust concerns raised by the European Commission.”<br />Euronext said in January that it had signed a binding offer of 510 million euros, or about $538 million, for all of LCH S. A.
