Big London Stock Exchange Investor Wants CEO Rolet to Stay

(Bloomberg) -- One of London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s biggest shareholders wants the chairman to resign and Chief Executive Officer Xavier Rolet to rescind plans to retire next year.

TCI Fund Management Ltd., which owns 5 percent of LSE Group, said Rolet, 57, doesn’t want to leave the company but is being forced out, according to a letter the hedge fund sent to Chairman Donald Brydon on Friday. The fund manager also urged Brydon to quit.

“It is clear to us that he has been forced by the board to leave against his wishes,” Christopher Hohn, founder of the fund, wrote in the letter. “Your decision will result in significant value destruction for shareholders.” Hohn said Rolet’s contract should be extended to 2021 and praised the CEO for creating “enormous value through transformative acquisitions and excellent operational management.”

LSE Group didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Rolet’s retirement by the end of 2018 was announced last month. He had planned to step down this year if Deutsche Boerse AG’s takeover of the company had been approved, but regulators blocked the transaction in March.

The Financial Times reported on Hohn’s letter earlier Friday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Baker in Chicago at nbaker7@bloomberg.net, Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Dan Reichl

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