LSE centre stage in own theatre

There was a delicious irony this week in watching the London Stock Exchange acclimatising to the unusual position of being the subject of a tussle between two suitors. After all, such situations affecting the companies listing on its markets are part of the lifeblood of the exchange and its peers. Still, there is a certain air of surprise, nay outrage, that the exchange should find itself little more than a target for ambitious, but smaller European rivals.

The LSE had organised a tidy little merger plan with the Deutsche Borse, the second largest exchange in Europe after itself. Unfortunately, with the arrogance sometimes associated with long-established City institutions, it proved remarkably reluctant to be transparent with its shareholders - the stockbroking firms which make their living from the market. Worse, it showed little interest in addressing concerns raised by the brokers. This is the very behaviour the exchange and its members would deplore if it occurred among its constituent companies.

Now the ambitious Swedish OM Group, which owns the Stockholm exchange, has tabled a hostile bid having been rebuffed with a friendly offer. While the offer is more beneficial to the exchange's shareholders than the terms of the Deutsche Borse merger, it is largely backed with paper, removing some of its gloss.

What the OM move does do is put the exchange firmly in play as a takeover target and that might well attract other European exchanges and groupings. It will be interesting to see how the exchange copes with the sort of pressure to which its constituents are all too accustomed. It will also be interesting to see if the brokers - the shareholders in this case - act in opting for the highest offer or the best arrangement to provide a viable competitor to the Nasdaq and other exchanges, not necessarily the same thing.