The London Stock Exchange (LSE) said on Friday it may consider selling part or all of its Italian stock exchange group (Milan bourse) to help get its planned $27 billion takeover of data and analytics group Refinitiv approved in Europe.

It said that it had begun “exploratory discussions” which could result in MTS, Borsa Italiana’s bond trading platform, or its entire Italian arm being sold.

LSE announced the proposed Refinitiv acquisition last year which will broaden its trading business and make it a major distributor and creator of market data, a profitable and fast growing sector. It will also make it a rival to Bloomberg.

The European Union’s antitrust regulators are currently reviewing the deal and expressed concern in June about the combined company’s large market share in the trading of European government bonds because both MTS’ trading venue and Refinitiv’s Tradeweb are already market leaders. On Friday, as it reported a rise in first-half profit, LSE said it now expects the Refinitiv deal to complete by early 2021, suggesting a potentially longer timeline than previously indicated.

Refinitiv, which is 45%-owned by Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, declined to comment.

LSE said it was seeing good progress with foreign investment, antitrust and other regulatory approvals for the Refinitiv transaction, and that integration planning is well developed.

Rival exchanges Euronext and Deutsche Boerse are both expected by bankers to be interested in the LSE’s Italian operations.

Reuters