Critics of the proposed merger of the Frankfurt and London stock exchanges are reportedly planning to oust the chairman of the London exchange, Don Cruickshank.

Shareholders of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) are holding their annual meeting on Thursday, 14 September, the first since the stock market was demutualised.

LSE shareholders were originally scheduled to vote on the merger that day. This was put on hold after the owner of the Swedish stock exchange, OM Gruppen, put in a rival bid for a hostile takeover of the London exchange.

According to reports in the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, London shareholders hope to topple both Mr Cruickshank and Gavin Casey, the LSE's chief executive.

Brian Winterflood, founder of Winterflood Securities and one of the share holders, told the Sunday Times that "pressure is growing for people to let their disgust and anger be known and that will be done through the ballot box."

One of the possible candidates to replace the LSE leadership is the boss of the Liffe futures market, Brian Williamson.

Other rebels, though, are said to be reluctant to oust the management.

OM Gruppen will announce the details of its bid on Monday morning, at 0700 London time.

Deutsche B�rse vote doubts

In Frankfurt, meanwhile, Deutsche B�rse's vote on the exchange merger is still scheduled to take place on Thursday, but there are suggestions that it could be delayed.

"I'm sure that the vote will be postponed", a senior manager from one of Germany's largest banks told the news agency Reuters.

"We would be committing ourselves to conditions that may not later turn out to be so good", he said.

Who's losing?

On both sides there are fears of losing out in the deal.

Small brokers in London, and some of the larger investment banks too, feel that the merger amounts to a German takeover and resent the proposal to move high-growth stocks to Germany's Neuer Markt.

A study by technology investment banking group Granville Baird suggests that a vast majority of UK-listed high-tech firms is against moving their stock to Frankfurt. They are said to be particularly concerned about regulatory issues.

In Frankfurt, meanwhile, bankers do not like the idea that all blue-chip shares would be traded in London, and fear that it would be difficult to keep technology shares in Frankfurt.

Merge or perish

The chief executive of Deutsche Bank and boss of Deutsche B�rse's supervisory board, Rolf Breuer, meanwhile has warned fellow bankers that reform is necessary, or stock exchanges will perish soon.

"If the stock exchanges don't work hard, they will become useless and outdated and they won't be needed any more", Mr Breuer said at a workshop of the Frankfurt-based Centre for Financial studies.