Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s £32bn offer for the London Stock Exchange Group seemed so obviously doomed that it is tempting to believe the conspiracy theory that even HKEX did not believe it would succeed.

But before consigning it to history’s overflowing bin of failed bids for the LSE, it is worth considering some of the issues that the affair has highlighted. These raise big questions for the companies, the broader exchanges sector and the relationship between the UK and China.