The London Stock Exchange said on Monday it remained committed to an agreed tie up with Canada's TMX Group after a group of Canadian banks and pension funds made a preliminary, $3.7 billion counter offer.

LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) and TMX have initiated the application process with Canadian federal and provincial authorities and LSEG will continue to work with TMX toward the successful completion of the merger, the London Stock Exchange said in a statement.

The consortium, calling itself the Maple Group Acquisition Corp, on Saturday unveiled a takeover proposal for Canada's largest stock market that tops the LSE's friendly, $3 billion approach and would keep it from falling into foreign hands.

Analysts say, however, that the Maple bid appears to have the sole purpose of blocking the LSE deal and some question the rationale of such a move.

(Reporting by Paul Hoskins; editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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