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Canada’s dominant stock exchange group confirmed Wednesday that it has agreed to merge with the London Stock Exchange to forge a nearly $7-billion merger that would likely end the autonomy of a 150-year-old Canadian institution.

TMX Group Inc., which operates the country’s largest exchanges in Toronto and Montreal, had confirmed the talks late Tuesday, characterizing the potential deal as “a possible merger of equals to create an international exchange leader.”

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But the market value of the two is not equal. The LSE is larger, with about $3.87-billion in market value, while the Canadian exchanges are valued at about $2.99-billion. That means the shareholders of Britain’s national exchange would own more than the shareholders of this country’s biggest exchanges.

However, the newly-merged entity will have two head offices, one based in Toronto and the other in London, and the executive ranks will be evenly split.