Nasdaq’s Robert Greifeld becomes a more ardent suitor with each rebuff. Still intent on taking over the London Stock Exchange despite a blunt refusal and a series of damning statements against American Sarbanes-Oxley regulation rules, Greifeld continues to ply Clara and Co. with warm congratulatory words, and admiring glances.

In truth, having borrowed to the hilt to finance a 25pc stake in the LSE, Nasdaq doesn’t have many options left but to go for a full bid in September, the earliest date it can strike under the rules.

Greifeld has described the LSE as “the Crown Jewels of the European equity marketplace” which “continues to perform very well”.

Of his 25pc stake in the London exchange, he says: “our investment today looks stronger than three months ago”. Not everyone can say that.

Nasdaq may bid for the London Stock Exchange by October, according to Robert Greifeld, Nasdaq’s Chief Executive.

If Nasdaq succeeds in buying the LSE it would allow the American exchange to compete for listings with the new NYSE-Euronext and consolidate trading systems to cut costs.

A combined Nasdaq-LSE would allow companies to list their shares in both London and New York and offer traders on both sides of the Atlantic a way to buy and sell stocks through a single trading system. Sorting out the regulatory tangle may prove a tougher nut to crack than resolving the ownership issue, however.