Hong Kong Exchange Makes An Official Bid For London Stock Exchange

On Wednesday, in an unexpected move, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) made a $36.6 billion bid to acquire London Stock Exchange Group PLC, which industry experts feel will face a number of financial and regulatory hurdles.

HKEX also emphasized in its statement saying "there can be no certainty that the possible offer described in this announcement will result in a formal offer".

LSE

While HKEX aims for the proposal to create a global market infrastructure leader, it will have to face the British politicians and European regulators who have a deep-rooted scepticism over mergers of financial exchanges, especially now that it could be seen as a potential takeover from China.

Further, there are concerns over the current delicate political situation in Hong Kong and also the view that LSE's recent $27 billion takeover of Refinitiv would allow the stock exchange to push deeper into financial data and offering it a more secure future than that of combining it with HKEX.

Last month, LSE made a deal to acquire Refinitiv, a financial markets data infrastructure provider owned by Blackstone Group and Thomson Reuters. LSE said in a statement that it will consider HKEX's offer and will inform its decision in due course. If LSE's investors and board accept HKEX's offer, it will put an end to the Refinitiv purchase deal and create a global trading power that will have exchanges for stock, derivatives and commodities as well as clearing houses in two continents.

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