D Börse to sue EU over blocked NYSE merger

German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse has announced plans to sue the European Union’s top executive body over its decision last month to block the company’s merger with NYSE Euronext, which would have been the world’s largest exchange deal.

D Börse says the EU Commission’s decision and reasons to block the deal are “faulty”, and will therefore take it to a European court in Luxemburg.

The EU Commission’s antitrust body blocked the $10 billion deal due to fears the new company would have a dominant market position in the derivatives business and would have led to a “near-monopoly in a global market.”

The legal action of the German exchange is unusual because NYSE has no plans to take part, leaving it to strike out on its own, and lawyers have claimed that it would face an uphill struggle proving that the commission’s decision was wrong.

However, the move also underscores recurrent frustration at the commission’s market definition, which is shared by several parties in the derivatives industry.

D Börse on Monday said it had proposed Joachim Faber, chief executive of Allianz Global Investors, as the next chairman of the exchange group’s supervisory board.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.