LSE set for majority stake in LCH.Clearnet The London Stock Exchange is poised to take a controlling stake in LCH.Clearnet, the Anglo-French clearing house, after it passed the approval threshold it needed from shareholders. The bourse said on Monday that its offer of €20 a share for LCH had been accepted by shareholders controlling more than 60 per cent of its share capital. IN Clearing & Settlement Formal approval at shareholder meetings on Tuesday will allow the LSE to take a stake of up to 60 per cent, in a deal that implies a valuation of €813m for LCH. The deal requires antitrust approval in Europe but is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter. It will mark the second significant capture for Xavier Rolet, LSE chief executive, in the past six months following a £450m acquisition of the 50 per cent it did not own in FTSE International, the index compiler. It comes after the LSE also failed to merge with TMX Group, operator of Canada's largest exchange. "The LSE has gone from strategically weak - needing to merge a year ago - to strategically quite sound," said Peter Lenardos, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. It's acquired two growth businesses in FTSE International and LCH.Clearnet. They are a full service post-trade services business. We should look to them to them to develop their derivatives business next," he said. Securing LCH would give the LSE its own clearing house, enabling it to earn more from clearing fees. Its rivals, such as NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse, already own clearing houses at a time of regulatory upheaval. Regulators around the world want to push more of the over-the-counter derivatives markets through clearing houses to safeguard the financial system against large defaults. The purchase of FTSE International gave the exchange full control over the creation of new products based on the FTSE Index that would be traded on the LSE and cleared by LCH. It also allows the LSE to launch new products for institutional investors seeking to gain exposure to emerging markets and for automated traders who want to trade different asset classes, such as derivatives. Last week the LSE said full-year earnings to March 31 would be bolstered by income from its Italian clearing house, which had offset a flat performance from UK share trading and listings. Shares in the LSE were down 0.1 per cent at £10.33 at midday in London.