Fading hopes of a bidding war for the L

Fading hopes of a bidding war for the L

Fading hopes of a bidding war for the London Stock Exchange sent its share price below the 530p offer price suggested by Deutsche Börse yesterday.

However, news that the LSE opened up its books for the first time to its suitors yesterday helped its shares to recoup some of their losses by the close.

The shares ended 6.5p lower at 533p, well off the highs of about 585p reached after Deutsche Börse submitted its bid terms in December.

The decision by the LSE to give the Frankfurt exchange and its Franco-Dutch rival Euronext access to the contract terms of its arrangements with management consultancy Accenture and index provider FTSE was regarded as an attempt to kick-start the stalled auction.

The Frankfurt market is said to have regarded the move as a minor victory after its requests to conduct due diligence and the set-backs it has suffered from hedge funds which are opposed to its bid for the LSE.

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None of the parties involved would comment last night but the access to the data was regarded as a concession by the LSE that progress was being made.

It is unclear how much the bid process will move forward ahead of a decision expected later this month by the Office of Fair Trading about any competition issues raised by a possible takeover of the LSE.

The OFT has surprised the City by announcing it will not refer the matter to EU authorities in Brussels. It must now decide whether to pass the files to the Competition Commission for a full-scale investigation that could delay any formal bids until the summer at the earliest.

Werner Seifert, the Deutsche Börse chief executive who is battling personal attacks, met his LSE counterpart Clara Furse last week to hammer out further aspects of his proposed 530p-a-share bid.

A number of investors in the Frankfurt exchange have voiced their opposition to the price, which values the LSE at £1.3bn, most notably hedge funds TCI and Atticus as well as US fund management group Fidelity. TCI and Atticus, which are leading the rebel group, have lined up Lord Jacob Rothschild as chairman to take over from Rölf Breuer, the current Deutsche Börse chairman who is among a number of board members they are trying to oust.

By some calculations, as many as 38% of Deutsche Börse's shareholders have expressed disquiet about the approach to the LSE.

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