HKEx considers bid for London Metal Exchange
THE parent company of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday confirmed that it is considering a bid for the London Metal Exchange (LME), which is estimated to be worth between £500m and £1.5bn.
“The board confirms HKEx continues to participate in that process and understands it is one of a number of interested parties studying this opportunity,” Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing said.
LME, which handles around 80 per cent of global futures trading in industrial metals, is a top target for HKEx after it declared an ambition to increase its involvement in commodities trading.
The 135-year old LME has set a 7 May deadline to submit second round bids and CME Group, NYSE Euronext and the InterContinental Exchange are all though to be interested.
LME currently has annual revenues of just £50m and was recently forced into a partial climb-down on a new trading fee it had planned to charge users.