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Hong Kong bourse drops bid to buy London exchange, shelving its ambition to create one of the world’s biggest financial markets

  • HKEX had faced a deadline of Wednesday to make formal offer for the London bourse operator
  • The Hong Kong stock exchange operator will be unable to make a new bid for another six months

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It is not in the ‘best interests of HKEX shareholders to pursue this proposal’, the bourse operator has said. Photo: Warton Li
Chad BrayandEnoch Yiu

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) refrained from sweetening its £29.6 billion (US$36.4 billion) bid to buy the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), after its overtures to create one of the world’s largest financial marketplaces were spurned by London executives.

“The board of HKEX continues to believe that a combination of [London Stock Exchange Group] and HKEX is strategically compelling and would create a world-leading market infrastructure group,” the Hong Kong operator said in a regulatory statement on Tuesday morning. “Despite engagement with a broad set of regulators and extensive shareholder engagement, the board of HKEX is disappointed that it has been unable to engage with the management of LSEG in realising this vision, and as a consequence has decided it is not in the best interests of HKEX shareholders to pursue this proposal.”

By not making a so-called formal offer ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, the HKEX will not be able to pursue a bid for the London bourse operator for at least six months, according to United Kingdom takeover rules.

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HKEX shares rose by as much as 2.7 per cent in Hong Kong, in their biggest intraday advance in a month, as investors were relieved that the operator would not raise its financial leverage to buy LSEG. HKEX shares rose to an intraday high of HK$232.20.

The decision was a setback for HKEX’s Chief Executive Charles Li Xiaojia, who announced his surprise cash-and-stock bid for LSEG on September 11 at £83.61 per LSE share.

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