The head of TMX Group Inc said on Friday a hostile bid could come any day now, as a consortium of banks and pension funds prepares to take their approximately $3.7 billion offer for the Canadian exchange operator straight to its shareholders.

The counter-offer from the Maple Group consortium could disrupt TMX's planned friendly merger with London Stock Exchange Group Plc , which offered to buy the Toronto Stock Exchange parent for about $3.5 billion.

TMX Chief Executive Tom Kloet was speaking at a conference hosted by Sandler O'Neill.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)