London, Tokyo bourses explore alliance

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — The London Stock Exchange (LSE) and its Tokyo counterpart are exploring a potential partnership, but a merger or takeover was not on the cards. "There are talks ongoing (with the Tokyo Stock Exchange) but it's not about a corporate tie-up," an LSE spokesman told AFP on Monday. The comments followed a weekend report in the Japanese press that the LSE proposed an operational tie-up with the TSE, including the cross-listing of exchange-traded funds.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun business newspaper said on Saturday that the proposal also called for the exchanges to jointly develop a stock-trading system and take measures to stimulate start-up markets. A senior LSE official had presented the plan during a visit to the Tokyo Stock Exchange last month, the paper...