Key HKEX executive behind failed bid to buy LSE steps down, seconded to UK unit London Metal Exchange

James Fok, a key Executive behind bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s surprise US$38.8 billion bid to buy the London Stock Exchange in September, has stepped down as head of group strategy and has been seconded to British unit London Metal Exchange.

The transfer, confirmed by a spokesman on Friday, is being viewed as the first major staff movement following the failed bid, which would have led to the largest ever merger between two exchanges. He has been succeeded by Till Rosar, a former senior vice-president.

“James Fok has joined the London Metal Exchange as part of an internal secondment. Till Rosar has been appointed HKEX’s head of group strategy,” the spokesman said without providing further details.

Two separate sources at the bourse operator said Fok’s transfer was not related to the failed LSE bid. “It is just the normal career development of a senior staff member in an international organisation,” one of them said. Fok had not responded to an email for comment by the time of publishing.

An investment banker with Citi Group as well as other big lenders before he joined HKEX, Fok started as chief of staff in 2012 and became the bourse operator’s head of group strategy in 2016.

Last year, he joined the company’s 16-member management committee, its senior most decision-making body reporting to Charles Li Xiaojia, HKEX’s chief executive. As of Friday, Fok was no longer listed among its members on the company’s websites, but neither was Rosar.