Hong Kong Exchange losing top managers after difficult 2019

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd is losing two executives days after a senior staffer in charge of strategy was replaced, capping a challenging 12 months that brought protests in its home city and a failed bid for London's bourse.

Roland Chai, head of post-trade and a member of the LSE bid team, has resigned so he can return to Europe for family and career reasons, a spokeswoman for HKEX said. He joined the firm in June 2017 after several years at LSE's LCH unit.

HKEX's deputy group risk officer, Ketan Patel, may also leave after eight years at the firm, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing information that isn't public. The spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr Patel.

The moves come days after James Fok, the head of strategy, was replaced. Mr Fok remains with HKEX and will join its London Metal Exchange subsidiary.

Chief Executive Officer Charles Li is going back to the drawing board for his dream to connect the bourse with other global markets. Last year had "many twists and turns," and "caused us anxiety" Mr Li said in a blog post on Monday that also shared his hopes for improved fortunes in 2020.

The company in October abruptly dropped its unsolicited US$39 billion proposal to combine with London's 300-year-old exchange after political and shareholder resistance. Its third-quarter revenue fell 6.1 per cent from a year earlier, even as it managed to post a record  US$1.6 billion in revenue over the nine-month period that ended in September.

Overall average daily trading on the bourse in 2019 slid 19 per cent from the previous year, it said in a report on Tuesday. But the exchange retained its global crown as the top spot for initial public offerings last year, boosted by a US$13 billion listing from Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. More technology companies are discussing secondary listings in Hong Kong to follow in its footsteps.

Hong Kong has been rocked by months of protests, prompting some finance executives to reconsider where they would like to be based. The streets and shopping malls close to HKEX's headquarters were often sites for lunchtime protests by white-collar professionals, while schools have been disrupted after violent clashes and growth has slowed in the former British colony.

BLOOMBERG