Financial Times Europe - 12.09.2019

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Briefing

i audi Aramco selects banks for listingS

The state oil group has tapped a range of global and

local banks, led by JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley,

to handle its much-anticipated offering. The IPO

process could start as early tomorrow.— PAGE 11

i roroguing unlawful, says Scottish courtP

Edinburgh’s Court of Session as ruled that Borish

Johnson’s shutdown of parliament before Brexit was

“motivated by the improper purpose of stymying

parliament”.— PAGE 2; EDITORIAL COMMENT, PAGE 8

i ungary’s Syria shift sparks anger in EUH

Budapest’s plans to upgrade diplomatic relations

with Damascus by sending a chargé d’affaires has

spooked influential EU states which have sought to

keep their distance from the Assad regime.— PAGE 4

i olitical scion handed Fukushima jobP

Rising star Shinjiro Koizumi,

son of ex-premier Junichiro,

has been made environment

minister, putting him in charge

of contaminated water at the

Japanese nuclear plant.— PAGE 4

i acron stirs fears with Russia overtureM

The French president’s bid to repair EU ties with

Moscow has triggered alarm among allies, including

Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, as they seek

to maintain pressure over rimea.C — PAGE 2

i hina tariff easing avoids big-ticket itemsC

Beijing has announced it will exempt 16 types of US

goods, including cancer drugs and chemicals, ahead

of a new round of trade talks. But no big exports,

such as pork or soyabeans, were included.— PAGE 4

i on der Leyen faces ‘far-right’ spatV

Incoming Brussels chief Ursula von der Leyen’s

creation of a commissioner for “protecting our

European way of life” has sparked allegations that it

echoes the language of the far-right.— PAGE 2

Datawatch

Courting Epstein

The dire misjudgment at MIT over

raising donations—JOHN GAPPER, PAGE 9

THURSDAY12 SEPTEMBER 2019 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

World Markets

STOCK MARKETS

Sep 11 prev %chg

S&P 500 2991.42 2979.39 0.

Nasdaq Composite 8145.80 8084.16 0.

Dow Jones Ind 27006.06 26909.43 0.

FTSEurofirst 300 1531.70 1520.16 0.

Euro Stoxx 50 3513.93 3498.99 0.

FTSE 100 7338.03 7267.95 0.

FTSE All-Share 4032.44 3992.49 1.

CAC 40 5618.06 5593.20 0.

Xetra Dax 12359.07 12268.71 0.

Nikkei 21597.76 21392.10 0.

Hang Seng 27159.06 26683.68 1.

MSCI World $ 2179.43 2178.41 0.

MSCI EM $ 1008.13 1010.58 -0.

MSCI ACWI $ 520.95 520.88 0.

CURRENCIES

Sep 11 prev

$ per € 1.100 1.

$ per £ 1.235 1.

£ per € 0.891 0.

¥ per $ 107.745 107.

¥ per £ 133.012 132.

SFr per € 1.093 1.

€ per $ 0.909 0.

Sep 11 prev

£ per $ 0.810 0.

€ per £ 1.123 1.

¥ per € 118.487 118.

£ index 76.502 76.

SFr per £ 1.227 1.

COMMODITIES

Sep 11 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 55.80 57.40 -2.

Oil Brent $ 60.73 62.38 -2.

Gold $ 1498.25 1509.20 -0.

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 130.18 1.73 0.

UK Gov 10 yr 149.34 0.56 0.

Ger Gov 10 yr -0.56 -0.

Jpn Gov 10 yr 120.22 -0.21 0.

US Gov 30 yr 112.09 2.20 0.

Ger Gov 2 yr 101.14 -0.84 -0.

price prev chg

Fed Funds Eff 2.13 2.40 -0.

US 3m Bills 1.95 1.96 -0.

Euro Libor 3m -0.47 -0.48 0.

UK 3m 0.77 0.77 0.

Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

C L I V E C O O KS O N— LONDON

Scientists have detected water vapour

for the first time in the atmosphere of a

planet beyond our solar system, where

thetemperaturecouldsupportlife.

“Finding water in a potentially habita-

ble world other than Earth is incredibly

exciting,” said Angelos Tsiaras of Uni-

versity College London, where a team of

astronomers made the discovery by

analysing data from the Hubble space

telescope. “This planet satisfies more

requirements for habitability than any

other we know about now.”

Theexoplanet, known as K2-18b,

orbits a red dwarf star 110 light years

away in the Leo constellation. It is in the

“super-Earth” category, with a mass

eight times that of our home planet and

twice its diameter. Details are published

in the journalNature Astronomy.

Life could in theory have evolved on

K2-18b, given the existence of water and

tolerable temperatures for biological

molecules. But any organisms there

would not look like terrestrial life

because they would have to tolerate the

planet’s stronger gravity and the likeli-

hood of higher levels of radiation from

its parent star than Earth receives from

our sun.

“K2-18b is not Earth 2.0 as it is signifi-

cantly heavier and has a different

atmospheric composition,” said Dr

Tsiaras. “However it brings us closer to

answering the fundamental question: is

the Earth unique?”

The search for exoplanets around

stars beyond the solar system began 25

years ago. Since then about 4,000 have

been detected: a minute fraction of the

100bn planets our galaxy is thought to

contain. The technology is only just

reaching the point at which scientists

can deduce something about character-

istics of distant planets beyond their

mere existence.

K2-18b was discovered in 2015 by

Nasa’s Kepler planet-detecting satellite.

The UCL team used subsequentobser-

vations from the Hubbletelescope to

analyse the starlight filtering through

the planet’s atmosphere as it passed in

front of its star. This showed the strong

and unambiguous molecular signature

of water as well as hydrogen.

The planet is closer to its star than

Earth is to the sun, orbiting once every

33 days, but the star is smaller and

cooler than the sun, giving it a surface

temperature similar to Earth. “There

could be high levels ofUV radiation

which would be bad for life on Earth but

any life there would have evolved differ-

ently,” said Ingo Waldmann of UCL.

Water find sprinkles life-supporting

stardust on planet 110 light years away

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2019

No: 40,193★

Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha

Report & AnalysisiPAGE 3

Bolton’s exit fails to stir

conciliation in Tehran

Austria €3.80 North Macedonia Den
Bahrain Din1.8 Malta €3.
Belgium €3.80 Morocco Dh
Bulgaria Lev7.50 Netherlands €3.
Croatia Kn29 Norway NKr
Cyprus €3.60 Oman OR1.
Czech Rep Kc105 Pakistan Rupee
Denmark DKr37 Poland Zl 20
Egypt E£42 Portugal €3.
Finland €4.50 Qatar QR
France €3.80 Romania Ron
Germany €3.80 Russia €5.
Gibraltar £2.70 Serbia NewD
Greece €3.60 Slovak Rep €3.
Hungary Ft1200 Slovenia €3.
India Rup220 Spain €3.
Italy €3.60 Sweden SKr
Latvia €6.99 Switzerland SFr6.
Lebanon LBP7500 Tunisia Din7.
Lithuania €4.30 Turkey TL
Luxembourg €3.80 UAE Dh17.

Trade uncertainty,

already at record

highs, is showing

no sign of abating,

according to an

IMF index. Having

been stable, and

low, for the past

two decades, the

rise in the first

quarter alone

could suffice to

cut global growth

0.75 per cent

Uncertain world

World Trade Uncertainty Index

(GDP weighted average)













  

US and China impose

a series of taris

US and China

agree tari truce

US taris imposed on bn

of Chinese imports

Source: IMF

Uneasy easing

More monetary stimulus will hurt

economies—MARKETS INSIGHT, PAGE 20

Saving the Amazon

Scientists are racing to protect the

rainforest— BIG READ, PAGE 7

P H I L I P STA F F O R D, OW E N WA L K E R
A N D DA N I E L T H O M A S— LONDON
H U D S O N LO C K E T T— HONG KONG

The Hong Kong bourse’s audacious
£32bn bid for theLondon Stock
Exchange aces rejection amid doubtsf
about political risk and deal structure,
according to people briefed on the offer.
Yesterday’s unsolicited bid romf
Hong Kong Exchanges nd Clearinga
Group stunned investors in the LSE, one
of London’shighest-profileinstitutions.
The LSE said it was committed to its
own blockbuster deal,the $27bn acqui-
sitionof data and trading group Refini-
tiv, which would be scuppered by the
HKEX tie-up. It is leaning towards
rejecting the Hong Kong approach, two
people close to the board said.
The proposalvalues LSE shares at
£83.61 and in its offer document HKEX
said it hoped to combine“the largest
and most significant financial centres in
Asia and Europe”.
The bid comes at a critical juncture
for the global exchange industry as well
as for Hong Kong and the UK politically.
Exchange operators are increasingly
shifting away from the core business of
trading into supplying and monetising
the dataat the heart of markets.
The LSE’sRefinitiv urchase,p awaiting
shareholder approval, has invigorated
dealmaking in the sector. Once com-
plete, the LSE will be positioned totake
on global heavyweights such asInter-
continental Exchange nda CME Group.
Analysts cautioned that political
opposition whichhistorically derails
tie-ups between national exchanges was
likely to be acute because of social
unrest in Hong Kong over China’s grip
on the territory.
The LSE also owns trading venues and
clearing houses that play a critical role
as the plumbingfor global capital mar-
kets. The LSE “is a critically important
part of the UK financial system... as
you would expect, the government and
regulators will be looking at the details
closely,” said the UK government.

HKEX, which counts the Hong Kong

government as its biggest shareholder,

is offering £20.45 in cash and 2.

newly issued HKEX shares for each LSE

share. After initially rising 16 per cent,

LSE shares slipped back to finish at

£72.14, a 6 per cent increase.

The HKEX said the LSE couldmone-

tise market data in China and help Lon-

don connect to the country’s fast grow-

ing domestic capital market.

If the LSE accepts the offer the deal

would also give the Hong Kong group

control of clearing houseLCH.

One top-10 LSE shareholder said

HKEX was “trying to diversify away

from theirChinese exposure, which is

why they are bidding now and not nine

months ago”. The investor added:

“Shareholders won’t be rushed to make

a decision as we like the Refinitiv deal.”

The LSE,run by former Goldman

Sachs bankerDavid Schwimmer, said

the proposal was “preliminary and

highly conditional”, adding that it would

consider it.It comes asHong Konggrap-

ples with acrisis that has triggeredmass

protests over the autonomy of the

former British colony. In the UK, voters

face the prospect ofan election as Brexit

continues to convulse the country.

HKEX has a track record in London,

having paid £1.4bn for theLondon

Metal Exchange n 2012.i Bringing“

HKEX and the London Stock Exchange

together will redefine global capital

markets for decades,” said Charles Li,

HKEX chief executive.

Notebook age 8p

Inside Business age 12p

Analysis age 13p

London Stock Exchange poised

to rebuff £32bn Hong Kong bid

3 Fears over HKEX ties to Beijing 3 Investors unconvinced 3 UK group set on Refinitiv

0 20 40 60 80

CME

HKEX/LSE

ICE

HKEX

LSE

Deutsche Börse

Brasil Bolsa Balcão

Nasdaq

CBOE

ASX

Singapore

Euronext

Trading up

Market cap (bn)

Source: Bloomberg

LSE

Photo: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

After rising

16 per cent, LSE

shares slipped

back to finish at

£72.14, a 6 per

cent increase

Hong Kong unrest means

HKEX looks more like a

refugee than a gatekeeper

to fast-growing Asia. As

things stand, its approach

for LSE is not compelling

Page 10