Deutsche Boerse AG will not sell its derivatives arm Eurex or NYSE Euronext's Liffe arm to meet anti-trust concerns about their $9 billion deal, Chief Executive Reto Francioni told two German newspapers. "If a condition for the approval would be to sell one of the two derivatives exchanges Eurex or Liffe, significant advantages of the merger would disappear," Francioni told Frankfurter Rundschau and Berliner Zeitung, reiterating the Frankfurt-based exchange operator's stance.
Deutsche Boerse would not pursue an unattractive deal, Francioni said in an interview to be published in the Saturday edition of both papers. The statement comes days after it emerged that Boerse and NYSE were considering spinning off parts of their derivatives arms to create a third-party competitor as a way to placate regulators.