The €27 billion planned merger between the London Stock Exchange Group and the Deutsche Börse raises potential competition concerns, French finance minister Michel Sapin said yesterday.

The statement from the man in charge of banking industry issues in France warned of a potential impact on the European economy.

The proposed merger would create a group similar in scale to US exchange ICE and would leave smaller European competitors such as Euronext far behind.

Euronext operates the Paris bourse as well as stock exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon.

“The merger of these two entities will result in a large group which could hold within it a majority of the tools that make our markets function efficiently,” Mr Sapin said. – (Reuters)