London Stock Exchange said on Friday that its planned merger with Deutsche Börse represents a “compelling opportunity”.

The UK stock market operator said the tie-up would be an "industry-defining combination" with substantial revenue and cost benefits.

The talks, first announced at the end of February, are still ongoing.

LSE’s update on the deal came as it posted an adjusted operating profit of £709.6m for 2015, a 27% rise on 2014.

There was no mention of a potential rival bid from the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.

On Tuesday, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the US stock market, said it was considering making a takeover offer for the LSE.

ICE has until 29 March to make or announce an offer, while Deutsche Börse has until 22 March.

LSE’s 2015 performance highlights:

• New listings for the UK Main Market increased, up to 88 in 2015 from 74 in 2014.
• There was a decline in UK AIM listings - 61 compared to 118.
• In post-trade, SwapClear, the group’s OTC interest rate derivatives clearing service, compressed US$328trn over the year.
• Italian CSD Monte Titoli completed the migration to Europe's T2S platform.
• LCH.Clearnet's ForexClear announced plans to build a FX options clearing offering and its RepoClear service saw growth in €GCPlus, a new general collateral clearing service.
• Trading value on Turquoise, LSE’s pan-European trading platform, surpassed €1trn for the first time.