London Stock Exchange-Deutsche Boerse deal blocked by EU

EU regulators have blocked London Stock Exchange's £21bn
merger with German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse.

The European Commission said the deal would have created 
a "de facto monopoly" for certain financial services.

The merger would have combined Europe's two largest
 stock exchange operators.

London Stock Exchange Group said it "regrets" the commission's decision, as the deal would have created a "world-leading" financial markets firm.

The commission blocked the deal, which had already been thrown into doubt by Brexit, shortly before the UK started the formal process of leaving the European Union.

It is the third time that a merger between LSE and its 
German rival has failed to come to fruition.

They announced plans for a "merger of equals" about a year ago, following attempts by Deutsche Boerse to strike a deal with 2000 and 2004.

2000 - Deutsche Boerse and LSE announce talks, but no
 deal agreed 2000 - Sweden's OMX makes an £800m bid
 for but it is turned down 2004 - Deutsche Boerse returns with another bid for LSE, which is rejected 2005 - Australia's Macquarie Bank makes a £1.6bn takeover bid,
also turned down 2006 - US exchange Nasdaq takes almost
 a 30% stake in LSE, but sees its £2.7bn offer rejected
2011 - LSE agrees merger with the Canadian stock 
exchange, TMX, but it falls through 2017 - LSE and Deutsche Boerse merger - which would value the combined firm at £21bn - blocked by EU The final blow to the deal came from EU regulators' concerns about the combined firm's control over the clearing of bonds and fixed-income products in Europe.

LSE, which also operates the Italian stock exchange and 
has other businesses in Europe, had offered to sell its France-based clearing house to deal with those concerns.

'Disproportionate'

However, the commission decided that this remedy did not 
go far enough.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of
competition policy, said: "The European economy depends 
on well-functioning financial markets.

"That is not just important for banks and other financial
institutions. The whole economy benefits when 
businesses can raise money on competitive financial markets."

The commission had ordered LSE to also sell its 60% stake
 in MTS, a fixed-income trading platform, but LSE said the move was "disproportionate".

Investors responded positively to the deal's collapse, he added, with shares in LSE rising by more than 3% and in Deutsche Boerse by 1%.