EU antitrust regulators vetoed the proposed merger of Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange on March 29.
The $31.3 billion (29 billion euro) merger would have created Europe’s biggest stock exchange.
It is the companies’ fifth attempt—three public and two informal—to merge. The European Commission said the merge would have created a de facto monopoly in the markets for clearing fixed income instruments.
The EU antitrust enforcer said the exchanges did not offer sufficient concessions to alleviate its concerns.
The commission said it could not determine whether LSE’s offer to sell the Paris arm of its clearing house LCH.Clearnet to rival Euronext would have created a viable competitor in fixed income clearing.
Selling LSE’ MTS Italian trading platform would have removed its concerns, but LSE declined to do so.
The EU rejection comes on the day the British government kicks off the Brexit process.
The planned deal has been plagued with problems since Britain voted to leave the EU last June. Because of Britain’s impending exit, German financial regulators demanded that the head office of the merged entity be based in Frankfurt rather than London.
