Euronext shareholders approve clearing deal as company awaits news on London Stock Exchange-Deutsche Boerse merger
Euronext shareholders today waved through the pan-European exchange’s proposed takeover of the London Stock Exchange’s French clearing arm, LCH SA.
The deal, which is dependent on the London Stock Exchange’s merger with Deutsche Boerse completing, was unanimously approved at an extraordinary general meeting.
Euronext, reporting its full-year results for 2016 today, indicated that if the LCH SA deal falls through, it will pursue alternative options, which could include buying another clearing house.
Read more: Euronext boss happy with clearing buy despite deal helping rival merger
The London Stock Exchange accepted a €510m (£434m) offer from Euronext for LCH SA at the beginning of January.
Euronext chief executive Stephane Boujnah told City PM at the time that this deal put his company in a win-win situation: either it benefits from the LCH SA acquisition or it benefits from the merger not going through.
The London Stock Exchange put the French clearing business up for sale in September in an attempt to ease EU concerns around its merger with Deutsche Boerse.
Read more: Euronext has confirmed a €510m offer for LSEG's French clearing house
The European Commission has since indicated to the companies that it would focus its investigation on clearing.
Last week, the exchanges submitted the LCH SA sale as a sole concession to the European Commission, and they are confident this will be enough.
If the European Commission approves the merger, the exchanges are then anticipating major scrutiny from regulators in the state of Hesse, where Deutsche Boerse is based.