Hong Kong’s stock exchange says it won’t proceed with ~$37B takeover bid for LSE

Exchanges • October 8, 2019, 1:45AM EDT
UPDATED: October 8, 2019, 2:02AM EDT
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Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) has officially dropped a $36.6 billion takeover bid for its rival London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group.

HKEX announced Tuesday that it is “disappointed” with the management of LSE Group and therefore has decided “it is not in the best interests of HKEX shareholders to pursue this proposal.”

HKEX made the unexpected bid on Sept. 11, and two days after the LSE Group rejected the proposal, given its “fundamental flaws” - strategy, deliverability, form of consideration and value - and saw “no merit” in further engagement.

At the time, the LSE group said that the Refinitiv deal made more strategic sense. In August, LSE agreed to acquire financial information company Refinitiv from a Blackstone-led consortium for $27 billion.

LSE  said it remains “committed” to the deal, further details of which are expected to be announced in November. The transaction is "on track to close in H2 2020," it added at the time.

AUTHOR

Yogita Khatri profile picture Yogita Khatri

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.

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