Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings has approached Nasdaq to buy its 30 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange, a newspaper reported today.
The Sunday Timessaid in an unsourced report that Temasek had made the approach in recent days and the deal could lead to a full takeover of the LSE by the Singaporean investor.
On August 20th, Nasdaq Stock Market said it might sell its stake in the LSE, worth £800 million, to bolster its chances of buying Nordic exchange operator OMX and it was already in touch with interested parties.
The US exchange company said later in the day in a statement that it would not sell its LSE stake to a single buyer.
The reported interest by Temasek, which owns stakes in UK banks Barclaysand Standard Chartered, comes amid growing protectionism in Europe and the United States towards sovereign wealth funds making aggressive overseas investments in search of higher returns.
The International Monetary Fund said in June it was growing uneasy about the trillions of dollars managed by largely secretive sovereign wealth funds because it fears their activities could disrupt financial markets.
Temasek and Nasdaq were not immediately available for comment.