Macquarie Bank, Australia's biggest investment bank, has teamed with Computershare, the world's largest share registrar, to bid for London Stock Exchange, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The two would offer more than 530p a share for Europe's largest equity market, the Telegraph said on its website, citing unidentified people involved in the bid. London Stock Exchange investors want more than 700p a share, which would value the company at 1.8 billion pounds ($4.6 billion).
A bid would be made within days, said the newspaper.
Computershare chief executive Chris Morris was on holiday and unavailable to comment, said a spokesman for the Melbourne-based company.
A spokesman for Macquarie Bank in Sydney was not immediately available to comment.
Macquarie, whose profit has quadrupled in the past five years through investments in highways and airports, may seek to add LSE, home to companies such as HSBC Holdings and Vodafone Group, as it expands in Europe.
The 307-year-old London market posted a 13 per cent gain in first-quarter revenue as investors traded more stocks and more companies sold shares to the public.
Euronext, which last year said it was interested in buying LSE, still has not said how much it is willing to pay. The continental exchange, headed by Jean-Francois Theodore, is in talks with Britain's anti-trust regulator about a possible purchase.
Rival exchange Deutsche Boerse in March dropped a 1.35 billion pound bid for the LSE after opposition from shareholders. It offered 530p a share, which LSE rejected because it "undervalued" the company.
Macquarie Bank, which has A$94 billion of assets under management, has been buying infrastructure assets and bundling them into funds, from which it earns management fees.
The company, formed as a unit of British merchant bank Hill Samuel in 1969, posted a 67 per cent lift in net income for the year to March 31, to A$823 million.
The Telegraph said a bid by the two companies would not draw concern from the competition regulator.
- BLOOMBERG
Aussies team up for LSE bid
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