Deutsche Boerse 'in Liffe bid'

Liffe is considering several bids

The German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse has entered the contest to buy London's derivatives exchange Liffe, a report said.

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange has invited Deutsche to join two other bidders, the pan-European exchanges alliance Euronext and the London Stock Exchange, the Financial Times has reported.

Liffe has also made it clear that offers below £14m ($20m) per share will not be considered, the newspaper reported.

An offer at that level would value Liffe at £488m.

Lower bids

Earlier this week, analysts estimated that Euronext would be prepared to pay about £400m while London Stock Exchange would bid £343m.

There are no indications yet signalling how much Deutsche would be prepared to pay.

The bourse has not commented on the report that it may enter the race to buy Liffe.

Liffe, the second largest derivatives exchange in Europe, is seen as an important strategic asset for exchanges as a long-running trend towards market mergers and takeovers continues.

Some analysts expect a bidding war to follow.

Wrangling

Two of the likely bidders for Liffe, Euronext and Deutsche Boerse have previously considered taking over the third, London Stock Exchange.

Europe's stock exchanges have been under intense pressure for months to improve efficiency and cut costs, and this has forged a wave of consolidation.

Euronext is itself the result of three exchanges merging; Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, soon to be joined by Lisbon.

Speculation that Liffe might merge with the LSE has been rife for months, especially after Clara Furse, former Liffe deputy chairman, replaced LSE's chairman Gavin Casey.

Both Euronext and Deutsche Boerse would use Liffe as a gateway to the City of London.