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

Exchanges • October 8, 2019, 1:45AM EDT

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.

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