HONG KONG — Charles Li, the chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing since 2010, is leaving the stock exchange operator, and a search is underway to name his successor.
Li, 58 years old and the architect of the failed $36.5 billion bid for London Stock Exchange Group last year, informed the board that he would not seek reappointment as CEO when his contract ends in October 2021, HKEX said in a statement on Thursday. He has agreed to stay on until the end of the contract or until a successor is appointed, it said.
The statement did not specify Li’s future plans.
“The board is confident that the succession process will be smooth and orderly and that the group is on a strong foundation,” Laura Cha, the chairman of HKEX and head of the search committee, said in the statement.
Earlier on Thursday, the exchange reported a 13% decline in first-quarter profit to 2.26 billion Hong Kong dollars ($291.5 million) as investment losses and higher operating expenses negated a surge in trading and clearing fees.
During his time at HKEX, Li earned the nickname “Mr. China” for shaping the exchange as a gateway to the mainland’s financial markets through programs such as Stock Connect. The connect program linked HKEX with the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges covering more than 2,000 stocks.
He was behind the exchange’s only overseas acquisition to date. In 2012, HKEX bought the London Metal Exchange for 1.4 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) with the aim to connect the West with China, the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals.
In 2013, Li came up with a plan to lure China’s big technology companies to Hong Kong from U.S. markets and eventually succeeded in 2018: his push for weighted voting rights that allow companies with different share classes to be listed in Hong Kong. That paved the way for Alibaba Group Holding’s $13 billion secondary listing in the city last year.
Li was born in Beijing and grew up in northwest Gansu Province during the Cultural Revolution. Before leaving for the U.S. for further study, he was an offshore oil worker in the North China Sea and then an editor-reporter for China Daily.
He earned a law degree at Columbia University in New York and worked for a few years at law firms, including Davis Polk & Wardwell. That was followed by 16 years in banking: first at Merrill Lynch and then JPMorgan Chase, where he rose to become chairman of the bank’s China operations.
He joined HKEX in 2009 and became CEO the following year.
HKEX shares have climbed 67% since his appointment in January 2010, while the Hang Seng Index has risen 10%. Revenues and profits at the exchange have doubled in the period.