The Board of London Stock Exchange firmly believes that the proposal, which represents only a 8 per cent premium to the current market price, substantially undervalues the Company, its unique position and the very significant synergies that would be achievable from the combination of London Stock Exchange with any major exchange group.
During its defence against the recent offer from Macquarie, the Company demonstrated that it has extremely strong growth prospects, which have been reinforced by record levels of trading on SETS in the first two months of the calendar year. February accounted for nine of the twenty busiest trading days ever on SETS with the average daily value traded up 43 per cent to £5.8 billion and the average daily number of trades up 35 per cent to 266,577 - both new
Accordingly, the Board of London Stock Exchange has rejected this unsolicited approach and intends to continue with its proposed 200 pence per share capital return, announced on 17 February 2006, which is subject to approval by London Stock Exchange's shareholders at a meeting to be held on 19 April 2006.
