London, German bourses making progress on M&A deal

London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE.LN) announced Wednesday it and Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE) are making good progress preparing merger documents for shareholders and expected these to be published next month.

In a joint statement London Stock Exchange said it expects its shareholders to meet to approve the $30 billion merger in July.

On March 16 the LSE and Germany’s Deutsche Boerse agreed to merge in a deal that would establish Europe’s biggest stock-exchange operator, posing a formidable challenge to large U.S. rivals.

The all-share agreement would form a combined company with a market value of about $30 billion, and would be 45.6%-owned by LSE shareholders and the rest by Deutsche Boerse shareholders.

Donald Brydon will be chairman of the new company, which still hasn’t been named, while Joachim Faber will be deputy chairman and senior independent director. Carsten Kengeter will be chief executive and David Warren finance director.

For the merger to go through, at least 75% of shares in Deutsche Boerse need to be tendered, while at least 75% of LSE shareholders need to vote in favor of the deal.

The two exchange companies’ combined total revenue of 4.7 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in 2015 means the new entity would be the world’s biggest exchange group by that measure.

Source: MarketWatch