LSEG investors offload $2.4bn of shares in London bourse owner

Bengaluru/London — A consortium of investors in London Stock Exchange Group sold about £1.9bn ($2.41bn) of shares in the London bourse owner, as it looks to cash in on rising interest in LSEG’s transition into a financial data powerhouse. 

The consortium, which includes private equity firm Blackstone, Thomson Reuters and other investors, “executed a monetisation” of about 21.5-million shares in LSEG.

Institutional investors purchased about 15.9-million shares at 8,980p per share, reflecting a discount of about 0.7% on the March 5 closing price.

LSEG said it agreed to buy back about 5.6-million voting and limited-voting ordinary shares from the consortium in a £500m off-market transaction.

The company paid 8,917p a share. LSEG has said it expected to execute up to £1bn of share buybacks during 2024.

LSEG shares were trading 2.8% higher at 8.13am GMT.

Data now represents 70% of turnover at LSEG, which posted total 2023 income, excluding recoveries, of £8bn, up 7.8% and at the higher end of a 6-8% forecast on February 29.

LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27bn from Blackstone three years ago. Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters News, has a minority shareholding in LSEG after the Refinitiv deal. LSEG also pays Reuters for news.

At a capital markets day in November 2023, LSEG raised its mid-term growth guidance to “mid-to-high single digits” as it looks beyond the integration of Refinitiv to the benefits of its $2bn tie-up with Microsoft.

Reuters