Macquarie/LSE Too far down under

Bidders can offer a low premium when they make a takeover approach with regulatory and financial certainty. But Australia’s Macquarie Bank is pushing its luck on this score. Its 580p-a-share bid for the London Stock Exchange amounts to a premium of only 16% over the lowest estimates of the company’s fair value. You don’t need to take a much more bullish view of the LSE’s prospects and the premium disappears almost entirely. Macquarie doubtless knows it must offer more to have any chance of succ...