The London Stock Exchange repeated its rejection of arguments put forward by the US Nasdaq stock market to accept its take-over bid for Europe's largest bourse.
The value of LSE shares would probably fall sharply if shareholders rejected a hostile take-over bid from the US market, the Nasdaq said earlier today in a statement.
Last month, the LSE had recommended to its shareholders that they reject the offer worth £2.9 billion, having described Nasdaq's bid as 'wholly inadequate'.
'The board believes that Nasdaq's offer does not even give shareholders standalone value,' LSE chairman Chris Gibson-Smith said in a statement this evening.
'We trust that shareholders will not be misled by Nasdaq's document and urge them to continue to reject this wholly inadequate offer', he added.
The US exchange had set shareholders a deadline of January 11 to accept the offer after formally launching its hostile bid for the LSE on December 12.
LSE shares have more than trebled over the past two years as it has attracted a list of suitors including pan-European market Euronext and Germany's Deutsche Boerse.
Nasdaq already owns 28.75% of the LSE, which is Europe's biggest stock market.
The US technology-weighted exchange is offering 1,243 pence per share for the remaining 71.25%.
