Disgruntled London Stock Exchange (LSE) shareholders said Britain's Takeover Panel may demand the LSE delays a vote to merge with Frankfurt after last week's unsolicited LSE offer from the Stockholm bourse.
"I would have thought the Takeover Panel would have a view on all this," Ms Angela Knight, chief executive of Apcims, the British private retail broker association, said yesterday.
"The panel may say to the exchange that it has to wait," she added.
The panel was not immediately available for comment.
Apcims, whose members account for about a third of LSE shareholders, has called many times on the LSE to delay its September 14th vote on whether it should merge with the Deutsche Boerse to create iX.
Apcims said more detail is needed about how iX would work in practice, and Stockholm's move reinforced the need for a postponement.
The LSE reiterated yesterday the ballot would go ahead after it rejected an £800 million sterling (€1,302 million) bid last week from OM Gruppen, which operates the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
