Brussels regulator expected to push back London Stock Exchange merger decision
Brussels regulators is set to extend the length of their investigation into the London Stock-Exchange’s merger with Deutsche Boerse.
The European Commission is expected to announce today that a final decision will be made on 6 March – pushed back from 13 February.
Read more: London Stock Exchange beats expectations as it seeks to push through deal
The body announced the launch of an in-depth, phase two investigation into the £21bn merger at the end of last month.
The LSE announced at the time that it would be exploring the sale of its Paris-based clearing business, LCH SA, to order to “address proactively anti-trust concerns raised by the European Commission in relation to certain businesses”.
Read more: The EU has opened an in-depth probe into the LSE – Deutsche Borse merger
Analysts remain sceptical that the LSE-Deutsche Boerse merger will go through.
A Bloomberg poll of 18 event-driven desks, equity analysts and fund managers found a 40 per cent chance that the deal will go through.
But this was up from 26 per cent when the organisation conducted the same poll on 30 June.