Crunch weekend for the board to decide London Stock Exchange's fate

THE board of the London Stock Exchange will hold crunch talks this weekend over the £32 billion takeover bid from the Hong Kong bourse.

Investor reaction to the largely share-based bid has so far been lukewarm.

LSE chief executive David Schwimmer will hold talks with board members including chairman Don Robert and non-execs including Creddisa Hogg over the potential merits of the bid.

The LSE is expected to reject it, having already described it as “unsolicited, preliminary and highly conditional”. While three-quarters of the bid is in new shares of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), chief executive Charles Li could well decide to boost the cash element of the deal.

Shares in the London Stock Exchange jumped 10% today on that hope, up 682p to 7486p. That is still far below the 8361p bid price, suggesting the market thinks it is highly unlikely to succeed.