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A takeover bid worth around €830 million (£744million) for London's leading financial clearing house LCH.Clearnet will be discussed by its board early this week.
The offer comes from a consortium led by Icap, the interdealer broking giant founded by Michael Spencer, and backed by a number of investment banks including JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank.
A takeover would give the Icap consortium control of the largest clearing house for interest rate swaps and also for the London Stock Exchange's share trading.
Clearing houses have shot to the fore during the financial crisis because of the role they play in post-trade processing and the fact that they can guarantee that transactions take place even when one party defaults as Lehman Brothers did last year.
Regulators are increasingly keen to see clearing houses more involved in fringe areas of financial markets particularly over-the-counter trades which are private deals with no formal oversight.
The Icap consortium has offered €11 a share and comes just after a merger deal collapsed with US rival The Depositary Trust & Clearing Corporation - which would have created the world's largest clearing house.
At the same time clearing houses have come under increasing pressure to cut costs and reduce the charges they make on their clients - mainly investment banks who are also LCH.Clearnet's main shareholders.
