IN AN AUCTION, the highest bidder usually walks away with the asset on sale. Yet considerations that are not purely commercial are likely to determine who wins the London Stock Exchange's auction of Borsa Italiana. The LSE is selling the Italian stock exchange in order to ensure regulatory approval of its takeover of Refinitiv, a financial-data provider that it agreed to buy last year for $27bn. The bidder least likely to upset European politicians and regulators seems likely to prevail, rather than the one offering the most dosh.
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