China co to buy majority stake in London Metal Exchange founder

China’s biggest logistics firm, CMST Development Co, said it will acquire a majority stake in Henry Bath & Son, a more than 200-year-old firm, one of the founders of the London Metal Exchange.

CMST Development will buy a 51 percent stake in warehouse operator Henry Bath from owners <g data-gr-id="12">Mercuria</g> Capital Partners for around $60 million, the Beijing-based firm said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange. Henry Bath was founded in 1794, according to its website, and almost a century later went on to play a role in setting up the London Metal Exchange, now the world's reference market for base metals.

It is the latest acquisition of a symbolic European asset by a Chinese firm, following the sales earlier this year of Italian tyre and calendar maker Pirelli and French holiday group Club Med. Liverpool-based Henry Bath now has a global platform in warehousing and logistics capabilities, with subsidiaries in the Netherlands, the US and Singapore, according to its website. Its business mainly involves nonferrous metals, coffee and cocoa.