The chairman and chief executive of Deutsche Börse have quit following the collapse of their plans to take over London Stock Exchange.

The Frankfurt-based stock market operator said that Werner Seifert (pictured above), its chief executive for 12 years, was to quit immediately. Rolf Breuer, the company’s chairman, is to leave at the end of this year.

The departures come two months after Deutsche Börse withdrew a £1.3 billion bid for LSE after coming under pressure from investors who were concerned at the price.

Excess cash could be better spent buying back Börse shares, the rebels argued, promising an angry confrontation with management at the group's annual meeting on May 25.

The bid’s failure dashed Dr Seifert’s long-held ambitions of a tie-up with LSE – plans he championed for a joint exchange, iX, foundered in 2000 – and undermined his position at the Börse.

Dr Breuer said: "In the interest of the company we want to put an end to the recent debate with some of our shareholders."

He added: "Accordingly, we urge all shareholders to vote as recommended by the boards in the upcoming annual meeting."

The announcement followed a meeting of the Börse's supervisory board which decided on an overhaul of the group's structure. Three members of the committee are to go as part of the shake-up in addition to Lord Levene, the chairman of Lloyd's of London, who quit the Börse last month.

Dr Seifert, who the board said should be replaced by a candidate from outside the company, will be succeeded in the interim by Mathias Hlubek, the Börse's chief financial officer.

The departure of Dr Seifert, who had been due to retire in 2012, ends a term at Börse which was initially marked by significant success. As a former McKinsey star, he is credited with bringing a commercialism to Deutsche Börse evident in the profits of €109 million the company achieved in the first three months of the year on revenues of nearly €400 million.

He built the company's futures and options business into a significant rival to Liffe, the London futures exchange which sought the protection of a takeover by Euronext, the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon exchange operator.

However, while hoping through the takeover of LSE to create a world-beating exchange giant, Dr Seifert angered investors by pursuing a takeover without, they said, sufficient consultation.

Deutsche Börse shares, which were temporarily suspended this afternoon, reopened 2 per cent higher at €61.62.

Shares in Euronext, which has drawn up outline plans for an LSE takeover, rose by 2.0 per cent to €27.40, with the company appearing increasingly unlikely to face competition to a bid. Deutsche Börse had, under Dr Seifert, said that it was willing to resume overtures to LSE should a firm offer from Euronext emerge.

LSE stock stood 0.25p lower at 461p.

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