London Stock Exchange boss says M&A with rival likely

LONDON (ShareCast) - The boss of the London Stock Exchange Group has said that the market operator could potentially be part of a tie-up with one of the other four main Western exchange groups within the next two years. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Xavier Rolet reiterated his prediction made in 2011 that there would be deals between LSE, CME Group (Kuala Lumpur: 7018.KL - news) , Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE - news) and Deutsche Boerse (Xetra: 63DA.DE - news) within five years.

"Maybe the timing will be wrong. But I still have a year and a half to go," he said.

"Market infrastructure is still a bit of a cottage industry. It is ripe for change. When there is an industry with competitive tension, consolidation tends to be not too far behind." Rolet said previous attempts by the other three to do deals had been blocked over competition concerns given that they all have big derivatives exchanges - something that LSE does not.

LSE's stock was down 0.3% at 2,554.42p by the close.