Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx or the Company) has today announced the placing of new shares to independent professional and institutional investors under the general mandate granted to its directors at the annual general meeting of the Company held on 23 April 2012 (the Placing).

A total of 65.7 million new HKEx shares (the Placing Shares) will be issued under the Placing, representing approximately 5.71 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company as enlarged by the Placing.  The price for each Placing Share is HK$118.00, representing a discount of 5.4 per cent to the closing price of HK$124.80 per share as quoted on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Stock Exchange) on 29 November 2012.

The gross proceeds to HKEx will be HK$7,753 million, or approximately US$1 billion. After deducting issuance costs, the net proceeds to HKEx will be approximately HK$7,709 million, or approximately US$994 million. HKEx intends to use the net proceeds to partly fund the previously announced acquisition (the Acquisition) of the entire issued ordinary share capital of LME Holdings Limited, the holding company of The London Metal Exchange Limited (the LME).  As separately announced by HKEx, approval from the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom for the Acquisition was received on 29 November 2012.  Completion of the Acquisition remains subject to satisfaction of certain conditions as referred to in HKEx’s announcement dated 30 November 2012.

"As HKEx has now obtained the regulatory approval from the FSA, we are looking forward to finally consummating our acquisition of the LME and to realising the benefits of the acquisition for our shareholders and other stakeholders.  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," said HKEx Chief Executive Charles Li.

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 7 December 2012.

The Placing Agents acting for HKEx are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and UBS. China Development Bank Securities also acted as financial adviser to HKEx on the Placing.

More details on the Placing are set out in the regulatory announcement issued by HKEx today.

Ends