LONDON: The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) emphatically rejected the HongKong bourse’s $39 billion takeover offer on Friday, opting to stick withits planned purchase of data and analytics group Refinitiv.
The Hong Kong exchange will now likely have to go hostile and present abetter offer directly to LSE shareholders if it wants to keep alive itshopes of becoming a more global player to rival U.S. giants ICE (ICE.N) andCME (CME.O).
The LSE told HKEX in a letter that it had fundamental concerns about keyaspects of the proposal which it said had no strategic merit, and thatHKEX’s relationship with the Hong Kong government would “complicatematters”.
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HKEX’s valuation of the LSE falls “substantially short” and the “ongoingsituation in Hong Kong” adds to uncertainty for shareholders, the Londonbourse added, a reference to weeks of pro-democracy street protests in theformer British colony.
