The London Stock Exchange rejected its Hong Kong rival's $37 billion takeover bid, saying the Refinitiv deal is 'on track'

REUTERS/Toby Melville

• The London Stock Exchange's board has unanimously rejected Hong Kong Stock Exchange's bid for the LSE.
• HKEX earlier this week announced a proposed bid for the LSE, offering to buy the exchange for roughly $37 billion.
• The bid shocked markets given that LSE already announced an agreed takeover of data firm Refinitiv for $27 billion.
• The LSE board said in a statement it had "fundamental concerns about the key aspects of the conditional proposal: strategy, deliverability, form of consideration and value."
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The London Stock Exchange's board just "unanimously" rejected the $37 billion take over bid by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Earlier this week HKEX had proposed to buy the London exchange, to create a combined company worth around $70 billion.

It was a bid that had shocked markets - the LSE had already agreed to a $27 billion deal to buy the data company Refinitiv.

"The board has fundamental concerns about the key aspects of the conditional proposal: strategy, deliverability, form of consideration and value," the LSE board said in a statement.

It added: "Accordingly, the board unanimously rejects the conditional proposal and, given its fundamental flaws, sees no merit in further engagement."

The board also said it remains "committed to and continues to make good progress" on its purchase of Refinitiv.

"Regulatory approval processes are under way and a circular is expected to be posted to LSEG shareholders in November 2019 to seek their approval of the transaction," adding that the transaction "remains on track" to close in the second half of next year.

HKEX now joins a long list of companies that have failed to merge with the LSE, after analysts earlier this week said that the bid was out of the ordinary, and that likely it would have failed given the history of merger attempts, the latest including a failed tie-up with Deutsche Boerse in 2017.

LSE's shares added 1.2% after the news of the board's rejection.