THE Hong Kong stock exchange spent nearly £13 million on professional advisory fees for its abortive takeover attempt on the London Stock Exchange, it emerged today.
Accounts show its advisers, primarily M&A boutique Moelis and law firm Slaughter and May, pocketed HK$130 million (£12.9 million) for the bid.
It was scuppered amid concerns over price, political unrest in Hong Kong and concerns about Chinese state interference in the Exchange.
The fees are similar to those HKEX paid for its successful £1.4 billion takeover of the London Metal Exchange in 2012.
Third-quarter figures for HKEX will be seen by some as justification for the LSE’s rejection, as the group suffered its worst slide in profit in three years amid social unrest and trade wars between the US and neighbouring China.
HKEX also cited concerns over Brexit as another factor causing trading to fall in the quarter ending 30 September. This year, the number of new stock-market listings has fallen more than a third against the same nine months last year.
Third-quarter net income fell almost 10% to HK$2.21 billion in what was the biggest quarterly drop since the last three months of 2016.
Chief executive Charles Li remained upbeat, however, hailing a “recent resurgence” of the IPO market and good returns from investment income.
