The Frankfurt stock exchange said Monday that it has decided to lower a key hurdle for its planned merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to go ahead and also extend the dateline for its shareholders to agree to the deal.

Deutsche Boerse said that only 60 percent of shareholders must now agree to swap their shares for the deal to go ahead, instead of the original minimum acceptance threshold of 75 percent.

In addition, the deadline for Deutsche Boerse shareholders to swap their shares for new shares in the merged company had been extended from July 12 until July 26, the group said in a statement.