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Euronext may make friendly bid for LSE
The Hague Euronext, the cross-border stock exchange involving the Dutch, French and Belgian bourses, may on Monday make a friendly merger offer for the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the Dutch economic newspaper Financieele Dagblad reported. The decision would be made at a Euronext management meeting in Paris early Monday, the newspaper said in its weekend edition, citing unnamed sources in the London Financial district. Speculation that Euronext would make a grab for the 227-year-old LSE has been rife ever since a merger between the British exchange - Europe's largest - and Germany's Deutsche Boerse was called off in the middle of last month. LSE management is currently trying to fight off a 1.77-billion-euro (1.57-billion-dollar) hostile bid by OM Gruppen, a Swedish technology company.The relative vulnerability of the publicly listed LSE, and its slow adaption to the technology required in a market increasingly driven towards on-the-second trading, has alarmed City of London executives. A merger deal with Euronext could give it the clout to see off predators. The Financieele Dagblad said the merger would result in Euronext coming in as a minority stakeholder, although it stressed that several weeks of talks would be needed between both exchanges to work out the details. The LSE's shareholders are to vote Thursday on whether to scrap a clause preventing any one institution from holding more than 4.9 per cent of its share capital. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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