London Stock Exchange (LSE) has rejected a takeover bid from its Honkong counterpart. The board of the British stock exchange operator voted unanimously against the rapprochement of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX). LSE also sees no reason to start a conversation and emphasizes its collaboration with the Shanghai stock exchange.

The offer of HKEX of 29.6 billion pounds, more than 33 billion euros, was not seen by many experts as viable. The Hong Kong stock exchange wanted LSE to abandon a planned acquisition of Refinitiv, the former data branch of Thomson Reuters. LSE has indicated that it will continue to support this acquisition.

The fact that Hong Kong is a Chinese area is also sensitive. The British authorities have already announced their intention to closely examine the acquisition due to possible “security implications”. The Italian Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri also indicated that he was looking at the situation. LSE is the majority shareholder of the Milan stock exchange.