The rumblings continue. The Teutonic giant of Frankfurt, Deutsche Borse, is still insisting that its offer of cash and shares for Euronext, the pan-Continental stock exchange, is better than the New York Stock Exchange’s offer because of the rise in the German company’s share price.

However, Euronext, which has agreed to the American offer, insists it can’t keep changing its mind on the basis of day-to-day fluctuations in stock prices. It also points out that the NYSE bid is protected by the fact that 30 pc of it is in cash.

The London Stock Exchange and the City of London jointly commissioned some research into the cost of capital incurred by issuers in major financial centres around the world.

The study shows that the cost of capital at both Initial Public Offering (IPO) stage and beyond is lower in London than in other major financial centres included in the study, and highlights the additional value offered by London’s corporate governance standards, which are rated the best in the world.

This is another reminder to stakeholders that a takeover by Nasdaq would be a severe blow to London’s status as a top financial centre.

The LSE reports: “The study covers equity and debt on the world’s largest stock exchanges: the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market & AIM, Euronext, Deutsche Börse, NYSE and NASDAQ, which together represent 58% of total world market capitalisation.”

With the possibility of a merger between Euronext and Deutsche Borse again being discussed, the German exchange is saying it no longer contemplates a top position for Euronext’s Chief Executive, Jean-Francois Theodore.

‘You can’t want to give responsibility to someone who clearly wants to torpedo the operation,’ reports Agence France-Presse.

Earlier this week, Deutsche Borse put forward a modified merger offer, making some concessions to Euronext. But Euronext again flatly rejected the German group’s advances, says Forbes.

An unnamed supervisory board member told the German edition of the Financial Times that Theodore would not be nominated for the position as Chairman of the supervisory board.

“Deutsche Borse declined to comment on the future of Theodore within a merged group, with a spokesman only pointing out that the latest offer does not mention the Frenchman’s name. In May, the Frankfurt stock exchange had suggested appointing Theodore as head of the new group until 2008.”

As reported on Sunday, the supervisory board of Deutsche Borse has announced new concessions in its continuing bid to merge with Euronext.

The German exchange’s initial offer, valuing the pan-Continental conglomerate at around €8 billion (£5.5 billion), was rejected by the Euronext board, which opted for an agreed merger with the New York Stock Exchange.

After a board meeting last night Deutsche Borse presented a new set of proposals designed to create a federal structure, with power devolved to the constituent exchanges at Lisbon, Amsterdam, Brussels and Liffe, the London financial futures market.

The financial side of the bid remains the same, however, but a statement claimed that share-price movements since the terms had been announced meant that it was now higher than the NYSE offer.

The Times (London) reports:

The latest German offer proposes:

* A new Dutch company to own Euronext and the Börse.
* Regulation of the Euronext exchanges to remain where it is at present.
* The board to be drawn equally from both sides. The earlier boardroom structure strongly favoured the Germans.
* Divisional management to be split so that information services were run out of Amsterdam, equities from Paris and derivatives from London and Frankfurt, where the Börse already has Eurex, a strong derivatives operation.
* Leadership split between Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris.
* The Euronext trading platform NSC to be used for equities, while Liffe would use Eurex and abandon its Liffe.Connect platform.
* The Borsa Italiana in Milan, which is already negotiating to join Euronext, would be brought on board shortly.