Reuters: Regulatory News: Chronology-History of the London Metal Exchange

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Chronology-History of the London Metal Exchange Jun 15th 2012, 15:59 Tweet Share this Email Print Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:59am EDT * HK bourse agrees to buy London Metal Exchange LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange, which the Hong Kong stock exchange agreed to buy on Friday, was formed in the last quarter of the 19th century to serve industrial Britain's insatiable appetite for metals. From its beginnings above a London hat shop, the LME has grown into the world's largest non-ferrous metals marketplace. Following is a chronology of major events in its 135-year history: 1571 - The Royal Exchange, the world's first commodities market, is established. Early 1800s - The Royal Exchange becomes so crowded, metal merchants gather at the Jerusalem coffee house on London's Cornhill to conduct business, where the tradition of the ring and kerb are established. When a dealer wished to trade he would draw a ring on the floor of the coffee shop and shout "Change". The expression kerb trade developed when the coffee houses closed at the end of the day forcing traders onto the street to trade on the kerb of the road. 1877 - The London Metal Market and Exchange Company established above a hat shop in Lombard Court and trades in tin, copper and pig iron. July 1914 - LME closes because of fear of supply shortages at the outbreak of the First World War. Reopens in autumn of same year. 1985 - Tin crisis - prices tumble after the World Tin Council's buffer stocks collapse. Contract suspended. June 1996 - Sumitomo Corp head trader Yasuo Hamanaka plunges market into crisis after losing $2.6 billion on copper over a 10-year period. End-2005 - Copper market in turmoil after Liu Qibing, a trader working on behalf of the Chinese government, vanishes. August 2006 - Martin Abbott appointed LME Chief Executive from Oct. 2. March 2007 - LME CEO Martin Abbott says the exchange is not for sale or planning any acquisitions. June 2007 - LME intervenes in nickel market to make more metal available at a time of tight supplies. July 2007 - LME members approve proposal to create 1 million new B shares. LME sets price of its new Class B shares at 65 pounds per share. September 2008 - LME says it has no plans to introduce position limits because it has systems in place to ensure an orderly market. March 2009 - Plan to pay dividends to shareholders approved at annual general meeting. July 2009 - LME says it has no plans to publish outstanding speculative positions on its contracts nor the names of dominant position holders. September 2009 - A resolution to move the LME to a two-board structure from one board fails to secure the 75 percent of votes needed. April 2010 - LME announces the appointment of Brian Bender as chairman of both its LME Holdings and LME Limited boards. Bender takes over from Donald Brydon. July 2010 - LME officially launches its Asia office in Singapore, it's first outside of London. September 2010 - The London Bullion Market Association and the LME say they will begin collecting data for the LBMA gold forward curve from September and will distribute this information from early in 2011. May 2011 - LME fleshes out a strategy to create its own clearing house, still at the feasibility stage, saying that incumbent LCH.Clearnet may not be best placed for the job. May 2011 - Report commissioned by the LME suggests warehouses with large stockpiles be required to deliver out much more metal each day following complaints by consumers of long delays to receive material. September 2011 - The LME says interest in the exchange as a takeover target has snowballed and that it will set up a "data room," opening its books for would-be buyers, by early December. June 2012 - The Hong Kong stock exchange agrees to pay 1.4 billion pounds ($2.18 billion) to buy the 135-year-old London Metal Exchange, the world's biggest marketplace for industrial metals, underlining the shift in manufacturing's centre of gravity to Asia. Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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