Ringing the changes
Four years ago, it looked as if the London Metal Exchange might not survive a copper-trading scandal. Now it is scrambling to meet electronic challenges
EVEN as the battle for control of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is being played out on the international stage, a few streets away the London Metal Exchange (LME) is undergoing a quiet revolution of its own. Like the LSE, the LME is about to change its mutually owned structure—a vote is scheduled for September 14th. But unlike the LSE, which plans to merge with Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt's stock exchange, to form iX, and faces a hostile takeover bid by Sweden's OM Group, the metal exchange has no need for a foreign partner, and no plans to float on the stock exchange. Moreover, having attracted its fair share of scandal in the past, the LME is glad of the chance to get on with life away from the public gaze.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Ringing the changes”
From the September 9th 2000 edition
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