UPDATE 2-LSE and Lehman start European dark pool platform
ju4 wa4i dia4n zo1ng he2 ba4o da4o :\n  (Adds LSE confirmation)\nBy Douwe Miedema and Mark Potter\nLONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange\n<LSE.L> plans to set up a pan-European, off-bourse trading\nplatform with Lehman Brothers <LEH.N>, the groups said, to fend\noff start-up rivals hurting LSE's business.\nThe joint venture called Baikal would offer access to\nsecurities across 14 European countries in a so-called dark\nliquidity trading pool that also offered algorithmic, or\ncomputer-driven, trading functions. "Baikal aims to address the growing complexity of order\nexecution (...) by allowing (...) participants to trade larger\norders in a trusted environment, thereby minimising market\nimpact," the groups said on Thursday.\nThe joint venture will start business in the first quarter\nof 2009, the groups said, and will be headed by LSE's chief\nexecutive, Clara Furse.\nThe move comes a day after Project Turquoise, an alternative\nEuropean cash equities trading platform established by a group\nof big investment banks, said it would go live on Aug. 18.\nOn Tuesday, NYSE Euronext <NYX.N> bought 25 percent of the\nDoha Securities Market for $250 million as western exchanges are\nlooking to boost their presence in booming emerging markets as\nbusiness in America and Europe slows.\nShares in LSE, Europe's biggest stock market, have fallen\nover 50 percent this year amid fears it is losing market share\nto new trading platforms such as Nomura-owned Instinet's Chi-X,\nwhich offer faster trading execution times.\nLSE shares were 5 percent lower, after jumping more than 11\npercent in the previous session when Qatar's sovereign wealth\nfund said it was in talks with London and German stock exchanges\nfor new partnerships.\nRising dissatisfaction from hedge funds with traditional\nstock exchanges and the European Union's new MiFID market abuse\nregulation have sparked the birth of an entire generation of\nalternative trading venues.\nLSE shareholders were enjoying a Middle-Eastern bidding war\nfor the exchange's business only nine months ago, but much of\nthe takeover speculation has disappeared, now that the\nexchange's future looks much tougher and Qatar holds a 15\npercent stake in the London-based company.\n(Reporting by Mark Potter and Douwe Miedema; Editing by Paul\nBolding)\n((mark.r.potter@thomsonreuters.com; 44 20 7542 7717; Reuters\nMessaging: mark.potter.reuters.com@reuters.net))\nKeywords: LSE LEHMAN/