Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing’s head of group strategy – a key executive behind the bourse's failed attempt to buy the London Stock Exchange – has been transferred to the London Metal Exchange.
After around eight years with the local bourse, James Fok joins the HKEX-owned LME. A former Citi investment banker, Fok joined HKEX in 2012 as chief of staff before becoming its head of group strategy in 2016. He was involved in various deals and projects in addition to the LSE bid including the 2012 acquisition of LME and the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect in 2014.
«James Fok has joined the London Metal Exchange as part of an internal secondment,» according to a spokesperson for HKEX.
Till Rosar, former senior vice president, succeeds Fok as the new head of group strategy. She has not been named to the 16-member management committee – the most senior decision-making body reporting to HKEX CEO, Charles Li Xiaojia – of which Fok was previously a member.
LSE Bid
Fok’s transfer follows the well-documented and strangely dramatic exercise by the HKEX to woo LSE shareholders with a $37 billion takeover that would result in a «world-class infrastructure group» according to the Hong Kong bourse. HKEX was swiftly rejected by LSE which saw the deal as a potentially «significant backward step» amidst ongoing uncertainty and the long-term outlook for the bourse as a strategic gateway.
According to an «SCMP» report citing two unnamed sources, Fok’s secondment to the LME was not related to the failed LSE bid but instead «just the normal career development of a senior staff member in an international organization».
More M&A?
Li has previously indicated that the HKEX would continue to seek other mergers and acquisitions to expand its business and the latest appointment signals no change in the strategy.
Similar to Fok, Rosar has ample experience in the field having worked with Westpac as its head of group strategy and M&A from 2016 to 2018 before joining HKEX as its senior vice president of group strategy. He previously also had a four-year stint with Sydney-based Australian Securities Exchange from 2012 to 2016.
