EU: Brexit rattles $30 billion LSE-Deutsche Boerse merger

UK deciding to leave the European Union could put the planned $30 billion merger between the London Stock Exchange and Germany’s Deutsche Börse at risk.

German regulators contested plans for a merged Deutsche Boerse-London Stock Exchange to be based in London following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, while one politician even said the deal was now as good as dead.

Deutsche Boerse and LSE agreed in March to a $30 billion merger to create a European trading powerhouse that would be domiciled in Britain with headquarters in both London and Frankfurt.

Two German regulatory sources told Reuters on Friday, however, that there was increasing scepticism about London being the base for the holding company of the combined group.

“There is rising irritation and increasing concern that London as a base poses a problem,” one of the sources said after the Brexit vote.

The exchange regulator in the German state of Hesse, where Deutsche Boerse is based and which has the power to block the deal, declined to comment.

The state minister to whom the regulator answers, however, said Brexit would play a role in the decision about whether to approve the deal.

“We will take account of yesterday’s decision in our review,” Tarek Al-Wazir wrote on his Facebook page. “We will wait and see whether the plans remain in their current form.”

Full Content: Financial Times

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