London Stock Exchange (LSE) is looking to sell the Italian Stock Exchange Company Borsa Italiana. LSE is also considering a sale of the Italian bond trading platform MTS, in which Borsa Italiana holds a majority stake. According to the British Stock Exchange Company, exploratory talks are taking place.

With an Italian assets sale, LSE hopes to obtain approval from the European Commission for the acquisition of financial service provider and data supplier Refinitiv. LSE wants to buy Refinitiv from Blackstone and Thomson Reuters for $ 27 billion.

Stock Exchange companies such as Euronext or Deutsche Börse may be interested in taking over Borsa Italiana. LSE has owned Borsa Italiana since 2007.

LSE also opened the books for the first half of the year and saw the profit rise by 8 percent to 575 million pounds.