On Wednesday 13 January, the European Commission cleared the acquisition of Refinitiv by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), subject to conditions.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President responsible for competition policy, said, “We can approve the proposed acquisition of Refinitiv by LSEG because LSEG offered commitments that will ensure that the markets will remain open and competitive and the acquisition will not lead to higher prices or less choice and innovation for these products.”
LSEG is a UK company specialising in financial market infrastructure. Refinitiv is a US supplier of financial data products (and it controls Tradeweb).
The Commission has cooperated in its investigation with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
LSEG has proposed a series of commitments: – to sell its 99.9% stake in the Borsa Italiana group, which includes MTS (LSEG’s platform for European government securities trading), to a suitable purchaser; – to continue to offer the OTC interest rate derivatives clearing services provided by LCH Swapclear on an open-access basis and avoid discrimination between clients depending on the source of OTC interest rate derivatives trades subject to clearing with LSEG; – not to discriminate between Tradeweb and third party trading platforms and middleware providers.
Link to the decision: http://bit.ly/3bxd4JL (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)