Deutsche Börse chief focused on solo future after LSE problems

Deutsche Börse chief executive Carsten Kengeter insisted that the company is equipped to face the future on its own, in his first public statement since the London Stock Exchange Group all but scuppered the planned merger between the two groups by refusing to make a concession demanded by EU officials.

Brussels had unexpectedly asked the LSE to sell its 60 per cent stake in MTS, a small Italian bond trading venue, in order to smooth the deal’s progress. To Deutsche Börse’s surprise, the LSE announced late on Sunday night that it would not do so.

Speaking at the opening of Deutsche Börse’s new Scale segment for small and medium-sized businesses, Mr Kengeter said that he “regretted” the London Stock Exchange’s decision, but was now focused on the future.

Mr Kengeter said “it would be futile for me to speculate on what the reasons were for this decision, so I would like to leave this to one side”.

He added:

We are working flat out on our [Accelerate] strategy. Nothing has changed on that. What we have to do is completely clear. We have to get Deutsche Börse back into the leading group of international [exchanges operators]. That is where it belongs, and that is our goal.

We want to strengthen Frankfurt as a financial centre… This new segment Scale is one of the many examples for this that we have given in the last 18 months. Standing still is not an option.