London Stock Exchange and Icap held merger talks

Jane Martinson - Monday September 25, 2006 - The Guardian

The London Stock Exchange and Icap, the world's largest inter-dealer broker, have held discussions that would have created a £6bn all-British exchange to rival any in the world.

Michael Spencer, Icap's chief executive, is understood to have called off the negotiations a month ago because he believes the LSE is overvalued. Icap, the most recent entrant into the FTSE 100, with a market value of £3.3bn, would have been the larger partner. After almost two years of bid speculation, the LSE is valued at £2.6bn.

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