Macquarie Bank and Swedish Stock Exchange considering bidding for LSE

Macquarie Bank and Swedish Stock Exchange considering bidding for LSE

	Published : Mon, 15 Aug 2005 14:05 By : James Rowe Print this Story

LONDON - The battle lines for the speculated take over of London Stock Exchange have been hardened by the apparent interest of Australian firm Macquarie Bank in the LSE.

Pan-European exchange operator Euronext and German exchange Deutsche Börse are thought to be the front-runners in the ambitious bid for the London Stock Exchange. Both these groups had submitted their bids for a review by the Competition Commission in March.

It has also been reported that the Swedish exchange operator OM Gruppen is also on the point of putting in its bid for the LSE.

Macquarie Bank would have to come up with more than £1.5 billion or $3 billion to make its bid a viable one. However, analysts are not so sure that the Australian bank can come up with the goods, "Macquarie can't offer that. Obviously if they came in with an enormous bid they would have to be taken seriously, as the LSE is a listed company. But until that happens, it looks like a non-starter," one analyst was quoted as saying. But investors were pretty excited about the news of a fresh bid for the LSE as shares rose by 9 pence to 552.25 pence in early trading.

The news was first broken by the Sydney Morning Herald according to which the tentative approach is supposed to have been made two months ago. And despite the aforementioned difficulties, Macquarie Bank is reportedly going ahead with its bid.

Analysts say the fact that Macquarie has no outstanding investments in stock exchanges could ultimately work out in its favor if a formal proposal were to be placed before the Competition Commission. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment on media speculation. As far as the Swedish Stock Exchange is concerned, it has reportedly sounded out its partners and advisors and is seriously thinking about a bid.