HKEx places new shares for LME deal

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) announced the placing of new shares to independent professional and institutional investors to raise about 7.753 billion HK dollars ( 1 billion U.S. dollars).

According to the announcement released on Friday, a total of 65. 7 million new HKEx shares will be issued under the placing, representing about 5.71 percent of the issued share capital of the company as enlarged by the placing.

The price for each placing share is 118 HK dollars, representing a discount of 5.4 percent to the closing price of 124. 8 per share as quoted on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ( the Stock Exchange) on Thursday.

The gross proceeds to HKEx will be 7.753 billion HK dollars. After deducting issuance costs, the net proceeds to HKEx will be about 7.709 billion HK dollars.

HKEx intends to use the net proceeds to partly fund the previously announced acquisition of the entire issued ordinary share capital of LME Holdings Limited, the holding company of The London Metal Exchange Limited (the LME).

"As HKEx has now obtained the regulatory approval from the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom (FSA), we are looking forward to finally consummating our acquisition of the LME and to realizing the benefits of the acquisition for our shareholders and other stakeholders," said Charles Li, HKEx Chief Executive.

"We are very pleased with the strong demand from investors for our share placing and the support they have shown for this major strategic step for HKEx," he added.

HKEx will submit an application to the Securities and Futures Commission for the listing of, and permission to deal in, the placing shares on the Stock Exchange. Subject to obtaining this approval, completion of the placing is expected to take place on Dec.7.

HKEx said in June that it intended to buy LME Holdings Limited for 16.673 billion HK dollars (2.15 billion U.S. dollars). The proposed transaction was approved by LMEH's ordinary shareholders in July. HKEx announced Thursday that the FSA has approved HKEx's acquisition of control over the LME. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 7.75 HK dollar)