EU blocks £25bn London Stock Exchange merger with Deutsche Boerse.

European regulators have formally blocked the £25bn merger between the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) (LSE) and Deutsche Boerse (IOB: 0H3T.IL - news) .

The development, which was widely expected, was significant in that it was announced just hours before the UK was due to formally trigger divorce proceedings from the EU.

The LSE had previously warned the tie-up was all but dead in the water because it would not meet a requirement that it sell a 60% stake in a bond trading platform called MTS.

It described that regulatory demand as "disproportionate".

A deal would have created a trading powerhouse - headquartered in London - to rival the biggest US operators and it remained on track through last summer despite doubts raised by the UK's Brexit vote.

The European Commission ruled against it on competition grounds, saying it would have created a "de facto monopoly" in Europe.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner, said: "The European economy depends on well-functioning financial markets.



Sky News.
Full story at Yahoo News.