Hohn faces defeat in LSE battle

HEDGE fund billionaire Sir Christopher Hohn looks set to suffer an embarrassing defeat this week, as shareholders in the London Stock Exchange are expected to vote against his attempts to topple the chairman.

Hohn, who heads up The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), has forced the LSE to hold a shareholder meeting to vote on whether to oust Donald Brydon this Tuesday.

A number of large shareholders – including BlackRock – have indicated they will support Brydon, making victory for Hohn highly unlikely. He is now planning to crank up the pressure to oust the chairman at the LSE’s annual general meeting next spring.

TCI is also understood to have asked the LSE’s interim chief executive, David Warren, for a meeting either this week or in early January. Hohn wanted to unseat Brydon and to reinstate Xavier Rolet as the Stock Exchange’s chief executive.

Rolet initially announced plans to step down in 2018. Following an intervention by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, he resigned with immediate effect last month.

It would take a 50 per cent vote to force Brydon out. Having previously been confident of achieving this, Hohn is now understood to be hoping for a strong protest vote. Other shareholders are reluctant to oust the chairman due to the risk it would leave the Stock Exchange rudderless when it has just parted with its chief executive.

THE Treasury yesterday said it would speed up a project to tie the London Stock Exchange to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, helping investors access both markets, as part of wider plans to build up economic relations with China.