London Stock Exchange CEO Xavier Rolet to step down

London: London Stock Exchange Group said Thursday that its chief executive, French national Xavier Rolet, would leave the company by the end of 2018 after almost a decade in charge.

It gave no reason for Rolet's move, which will precede Britain's planned formal departure from the European Union scheduled for March 2019.

"The board is now initiating a process to find a successor and will work closely with Xavier to ensure a smooth transition process as the group continues to execute on its successful growth strategy," a statement said.

Rolet joined LSEG in 2009 and since then, the company's market value has rocketed to nearly 14 billion ($18.5 billion, 15.7 billion euros) from 800 million, it added.

Rolet said he was "extremely proud" to have helped "turn LSEG into a truly global financial market infrastructure group".

Shares in LSEG, which also operates Borsa Italiana, were down 1.2 per cent at 38.75 in early deals on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was 0.4 per cent lower overall.

In a separate announcement, LSEG said that group revenues jumped by 18 percent to 442.7 million in the three months to September, compared with the third quarter of 2016.

Under Rolet's stewardship, the company bought US asset manager Russell for $2.7 billion to diversify and boost its business in the United States.

It additionally bought LCH.Clearnet, the British clearing house.

But also on his watch, the LSEG failed in separate attempts to merge with the Toronto stock exchange and earlier this year with Germany's Deutsche Boerse.

The EU in March blocked a proposed blockbuster tie-up of the London and Frankfurt stock markets owing to competition concerns and fallout from Brexit.

Rolet's Brexit warning      

Speaking on Wednesday, Rolet warned that more British firms would move business to EU countries should Britain fail to hammer out a post-Brexit transition deal by the end of the year.

"In the absence of certainty in the next few months, the businesses, the CEOs, the boards the executive committees of many companies that are based here will have to start acting on worst case scenarios," the 57 year-old said in a speech made at Britain's parliament.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has backed a two-year transition period to ease the impact on the UK economy, but she is beset by divisions within her own Conservative party and talks with Brussels are stalled over the size of the country's exit bill.

Rolet became chief executive of LSEG in May 2009, replacing Dutchwoman Clara Furse who had begun the process of steering the group through the global financial crisis.

He has spent almost 35 years working for a number of major financial institutions. And prior to joining LSEG, Rolet headed the French operations of Lehman Brothers shortly before the collapse of US investment group that spread havoc through the world's financial system.