HKEX abandoned bid for London rival

摘要

After his charm offensive has failed, Charles Li, chief executive of the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Group (HKEX), has – for now – abandoned his bid to buy the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The 32 billion pound combined cash-and-shares offer amounting to ￡ 83.61 per share was aimed at breaking up the LSE’s agreed deal to buy Refinitiv, the data and trading group, for USD27 billion. But the LSE and its shareholders could not be tempted. They stayed unmoved and flatly rejected the offer of a merger. Since Li was not prepared to further sweeten his bid to ￡95 per share or even more, he pulled out before HKEX had to make a formal offer for the British rival.