London Metal Exchange chief executive Matthew Chamberlain spoke to Metal Market Magazine editor Richard Barrett about how he almost missed the opportunity to advise Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing on its acquisition of the bourse.
Matthew Chamberlain joined the London Metal Exchange in 2012, having previously advised Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing on the acquisition of the LME while working for banker UBS in mergers & acquisitions, providing financial technology coverage. "When you are a mid-level M&A banker, your key challenge is to find a sector that nobody else is covering. All of the big stuff, like European retail banks and financial institutions, or global insurers, is covered by the senior managing directors of the organization, so you have to go and find your niche in something that nobody has thought about," he recalled. He also noted that when he was at UBS during 2010-12, people did not talk about Fintech quite as much then as they do now. "I had to find my niche and it turned out to be mergers & acquisitions for exchanges. And that really is where I learnt a lot...