Hong Kong’s LSE offer comes weighed down with baggage

For the past 20 years, the London Stock Exchange has been the object of the world’s desire. In that time there have been at least six attempts to buy the exchange by competitors such as Nasdaq, Euronext and Deutsche Börse. All of them failed, rejected by the LSE’s own shareholders or shot down by regulators.

Last week came the latest attempt to buy the LSE. On Wednesday, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing – ...