Singapore and London exchanges to jointly bid for London Metal Exchange: report

The Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX) has teamed up with London Stock Exchange (LSE) to make a joint bid for the London Metal Exchange (LME),  Reuters today reported, citing an unidentified source.

Under the deal that could be worth around £1 billion ($1.57 billion), the consortium has appointed a bank to advise it on the bid, the news agency said, adding that the auction is expected to attract rival offers.

Last week, LME said it has received multiple takeover approaches, and the exchange ''will begin a formal process which may or may not lead to an acceptable offer for the company being received.''

Although The LME did not name suitors, several media reports speculated that US-based IntercontinentalExchange, CME Group Inc, the Singapore Exchange and the London Stock Exchange as potential bidders

Any bidder would need the consent for sale from at least 75 per cent of The LME's 92 members, who include miners like BHP Billiton, Chilean copper giant Codelco, banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Barclays among others.

The LME is the world's biggest metal exchange, on which a little over 120 million transactions worth $11.6 trillion were traded last year at a daily average of $46 billion with more than 95 per cent of its business coming from overseas.