Allen & Overy (A&O) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have taken the lead roles on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's £1.4bn takeover of the London Metal Exchange (LME).

The A&O team is led by London corporate partner Alistair Asher, the head of the firm's financial services group, and counsel Ben Koehne, with City partner Damian Carolan handling regulatory advice.

The magic circle firm also fielded a team of Hong Kong lawyers including corporate partners Bernardine Lam and Gary McLean, regulatory partner Alan Ewins and banking partner Ian Powell.

Meanwhile, Freshfields and Jones Day are acting as legal advisers to LME Holdings, the parent company of the LME, which is owned by its shareholders.

Freshfields handled the M&A advice, with a team led by Sundeep Kapila, global head of the firm's market infrastructure practice, working alongside Tom Hine, general counsel and head of enforcement at the LME.

The firm's team also included global financial services head Michael Raffan, employment, pensions and benefits partner Simon Evans, tax partner Colin Hargreaves and finance partner Ian Frost.

Jones Day partner Frances Murphy advised on competition law.

LME is the world's largest exchange trading nonferrous metals. It offers futures and options contracts for metals including aluminium, copper, tin, nickel, zinc, lead, aluminium and alloy.

In a statement, Hong Kong Stock Exchange chief executive Charles Li said: "The acquisition of LME Holdings represents a unique opportunity for us to acquire in one stroke a position of global leadership in the commodities market. [The deal] brings a unique ability to help the LME grow its business in Asia and, particularly, China."

The takeover is pending shareholder approval, but the LME Holdings board has unanimously recommended that LME shareholders should vote in favour of the deal at a meeting which will be held before the end of July.