Frankfurt’s public prosecutor said it was prepared to drop charges against the Deutsche Börse chief executive Carsten Kengeter over allegations of insider trading, if the German exchange accepts two fines totaling €10.5 million.
Deutsche Börse said it was reviewing the matter, adding it “continues to believe the allegations made are unfounded in all respects”. The board said it would spend some days reviewing the offer, outlined in a ten-page document that is not publicly available.
In February, prosecutors launched an investigation into share transactions by Mr Kengeter in December 2015, searching his office and home for information relating to a €4.5 million purchase of Deutsche Börse shares. They were looking at whether he bought the shares while Deutsche Börse was in secret talks with the London Stock Exchange about a potential merger.
Both parties said talks began in January 2016 but prosecutors claimed they had been in talks since summer of 2015 and so Mr Kengeter bought “in the knowledge of previously unpublished contract negotiations, which the prosecutor considers insider information”.
Mr Kengeter has always denied the allegations, insisting the purchase of 60,000 shares was part of an official Deutsche Börse compensation plan.
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The merger with LSE was blocked by the European Commission this year.