Germans take stock as snags hit London merger

Pressure is growing in Germany to move the headquarters of a newly merged London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse to Frankfurt
Pressure is growing in Germany to move the headquarters of a newly merged London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse to Frankfurt
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They had hoped to both clear the air and a path towards their £21 billion-pound merger, but instead London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse were shifting uneasily in their seats yesterday in the knowledge that new obstacles were looming ahead of them.

Worse, those hurdles seem to be getting higher and more challenging as opposition to the deal, stoked by Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, grows.

While representatives of both exchange groups were holding talks with European Commission officials intended to iron out any issues that the authority may have with their merger, the focus of critics was less on Brussels, where the meeting was taking place yesterday, than on Frankfurt; and less on the stock exchanges’ discussions than with the bigger picture