The chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group has launched a robust defence of its $27bn acquisition of data and trading group Refinitiv, which Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is trying to gatecrash with its bid for the UK bourse.

In his first public comments since HKEX stunned investors last week with a ￡32bn takeover bid for the LSE, David Schwimmer said Refinitiv, best known for the Eikon terminals that deliver data and news to traders’ desktops, was “a very strong fit” and a deal he “felt very good about”.

Mr Schwimmer, a former Goldman Sachs banker who has led the LSE for more than a year, last month orchestrated the acquisition of Refinitiv. The deal hands the group a platform to sell data to investors, a stake in the bond-trading venue Tradeweb and ownership of currency trading platform FXall.