Slimming down to bulk up: the London Stock Change

The London Stock Exchange Group will today ask for shareholders’ approval to sell Borsa Italiana, Italy’s only securities market, to Euronext, a markets operator based in France, for €4.3bn ($5bn). The deal is big for Euronext, which has a market capitalisation of only €6.3bn. But it will have help, in the form of a €700m investment from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Equity, a bank controlled by Italy’s government, and Intesa SanPaolo, Italy’s biggest bank. Offloading Borsa could help the LSE get bigger. Last year, the firm agreed to buy Refinitiv, a financial-data provider, for $27bn. But European competition authorities have held the deal up over worries about the power that a combined LSE-Refinitiv would exert over bond markets. The firm is shedding Borsa to satisfy the regulators. The LSE can hardly complain about the sale, however: it will provide a tidy return on the €1.6bn it paid for the exchange in 2007.

slim down：精简（机构），裁剪（人员）
bulk up：使加大（或加厚）
market capitalisation：资本市值
offload：
把(担子等)转移(给别人);减轻(负担);卸(包袱)
hold the deal up over worries：因担心推迟交易
exert over：对……施加影响
bond market：债券市场
shed：去除，摆脱
regulator：（某行业等的）监管者，监管机构
tidy：高额的，可观的