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London Stock Exchange CEO Watches His Biggest Merger Bet Die

EU antitrust watchdog says deal posed ‘de facto monopoly’
CEO Xavier Rolet says he’s postponing retirement from LSE

Bloomberg business news — EU Blocks Deutsche Boerse's $14 Billion LSE Takeover

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March 29, 2017, 1:23 PM UTCUpdated onMarch 29, 2017, 2:14 PM UTC

The biggest deal in former Goldman trader Xavier Rolet’s career is dead, and so are his plans for imminent retirement.

While Rolet, chief executive officer of the London Stock Exchange Group Plc, has pulled off a string of successful deals, his quest to create a European champion exchange operator was a step too far for regulators. The European Commission on Wednesday dealt a final blow to Deutsche Boerse AG’s $14 billion attempted takeover of LSE, saying it would have created a “de facto monopoly.”