The London Stock Exchange is facing an uphill struggle to gain a 75% vote in favour of its merger with Deutsche Börse, according to an extensive Financial News survey of shareholders' views.

The poll, conducted before OM Gruppen's £800m (&euro1.3bn) hostile approach to the LSE became known, shows only 23.2% professing support for the merger to form iX, 14.2% against and a huge majority either undecided or not prepared to comment.