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Comment by _bxg1 | Hacker News Reader

Brexiters: We've got to be totally independent! No outside influence!

Also Brexiters: Let's sell our stock exchange to a territory of China!

Can you point to someone who is pro-Brexit who has also publicly said they favor the LSE being sold to Hong Kong?

It's a direct result of their shortsighted, nationalistic decision. The article says it's motivated by a hope of remaining a global economic power, after...breaking existing ties with a global economic power.

You say short sighted. Brexiteers say it is long sighted, so long sighted in fact that Remainers struggle to see any sense in it. Which is where all the "populist" "nationalistic" "racist" "they didn't understand what they were voting for" labels came from.

You realise this is just one publicly listed company (not a territory of China) bidding for another publicly listed company?

HKEX's largest shareholder is the Hong Kong government. They have 6 of the company's 13 board seats and HKEX's current Chairperson was appointed by the government about 18 months ago.

Press release on the "government appointment" of Cha to the board here: https://www.hkex.com.hk/News/News-Release/2018/180212news?sc...

> HKEX's largest shareholder is the Hong Kong government.

Is this true?

According to the bloomberg terminal 388 HK is owned 79% by funds( investment advisors) and only 13.78% by the Government.

Additionally 53% of shares are held by US entities and only 18% by Hong Kong entities

> HKEX's largest shareholder is the Hong Kong government

That just seems like a weird lie to tell when its so easily disproved.

Being the largest shareholder of HKEX does not mean they're the majority shareholder. Every ownership percentage you've quoted from Bloomberg is an aggregate across multiple investors except the 13.78% owned by the government.

I suspect you assumed largest meant majority because of the number of board seats the government controls. Interestingly, it appears that's unrelated to the government's financial stake in the entity. Securities laws in Hong Kong permit the Financial Secretary (a member of the Executive Council) to appoint up to eight board members. The government's authority over HKEX board appointments is outlined in Section 77[1] of the Securities Futures Ordinance.

[1] https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap571?xpid=ID_1438403466...

I don't think it's a lie, you've just misunderstood "Largest" to mean "Majority". The government is probably the largest individual shareholder, unless Reuters made a mistake.

Just look at Alibaba. The government likely owns even more shares through proxies or threatening of families.

You apparently have a bloomberg terminal in front of you (They are rather expensive) but you dont seem to understand what "Largest Shareholder" means? Then you say it is a lie?

Can you use your bloomberg to find ownership by individual firms and see if any single holder exceeds the 13.78% the government holds according to your post?

Nothing of what you said is incompatible with the HK government being the largest shareholder.

Hong Kong's long term independence is uncertain at best. A company cannot just be "publicly listed" if in the PRC.

Britain is no island of stability either.

I would argue it is an island of stability in that it only requires a small perturbation to become unstable.

HKEX’s majority shareholder is the Hong Kong government. I would therefore say that HKEX buying LSE is, in fact, a little problematic.

It's part of the plan - weak pound makes many struggling companies rich pickings.

"Struggling companies" ?

LSE's gross profit for the last four years:

2015 - 1,293,100

2016 - 1,854,000

2017 - 2,391,000

2018 - 2,715,000

Could you detail how this company is struggling?

Brexiters: We want to be open and trade freely with the whole world, not just the EU

The EU is in a large round negotiations of commerce treaties around the world right now. The UK, not so much.

The UK is not permitted to conduct trade negotiations with third countries while it remains a member of the EU.

Because the EU is still, 3 years after the vote, blocking us from conducting such negotiations for ourselves.

How is the EU blocking UK from doing whatever they want? Are they going to kick UK out of EU If they don't comply?

By the way Switzerland and UK have already negotiated part of their relationship after Brexit, so I suppose that the blocking is not that hard....

By law, so courts and fines and stuff?

Obviously it only has meaning because we subscribe to its meaning, but we do, and ceasing to do so would be monumental.

The UK is in the EU.

We’re not participating in the trade negotiations though.

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