Middle East investors Borse Dubai and the Qatar Investment Authority hold the key to the future of London Stock Exchange amid speculation it has become a take-over target after its aborted $3.5 billion bid for Canada's TMX Group. Borse Dubai owns nearly 21 percent of LSE stock and the Qataris hold 15.1 percent, Thomson Reuters data shows, making the investors easily the largest shareholders in the London exchange and key decision-makers in its future.
"They (the Middle East investors) might be like us and think this is a very good turnaround and the shares have still got upside on the fundamentals," said one of LSE's largest European shareholders, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But if they get impatient - it's the Dubai stake that is the critical one - if they were to get impatient they could easily put the company into play. With two big shareholders, it's a done deal if they want it to happen," the investor added. The British exchange blamed its failure to attract the requisite support from TMX shareholders for the decision to cancel its merger with the Canadian exchange at the eleventh hour on Wednesday.
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