8th Oct 2019 10:01
(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC said Tuesday it is making "good" progress on its Refinitiv Holdings Ltd acquisition, shortly after Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd pulled out of its bid to buy the operator of the London Stock Exchange.
LSEG noted the announcement by HKEX to not make a formal offer for the group, after initially proposing a potential GBP30 billion takeover offer in mid-September. LSEG initially rejected the offer later that month.
At the time of the rejection, LSEG said it saw "fundamental flaws" in the approach, and also noted any combination would come under intense scrutiny from a variety of regulators.
On Tuesday, however, HKEX formally announced it had withdrawn its offer to buy the FTSE 100-listed financial exchange operator.
"The board of HKEX continues to believe a combination of LSEG and HKEX is strategically compelling and would create a world-leading market infrastructure group," HKEX said on Tuesday.
"Despite engagement with a broad set of regulators and extensive shareholder engagement, the board of HKEX is disappointed 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", HKEX added.
After noting the withdrawal of HKEX, LSEG confirmed it remains "committed" to its USD27 billion all-share acquisition of financial markets data provider Refinitiv.
The firm explained it was making "good progress" with regulatory approval "underway" and shareholder approval to be sought in November. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2020.
HKEX shares closed 2.3% higher at HKD231.20 on Tuesday in Hong Kong, LSEG shares were down 5.8% at 7,020.00 pence in London in morning trade.
By George Collard; [email protected]; updated by Ahren Lester; [email protected]
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