FILE PHOTO: The London Stock Exchange Group offices are seen in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville
July 2, 2021
By Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) -The London Stock Exchange Group is in a strong financial position with integration of the $27 billion Refinitiv data and analytics company it bought in January on track, Chief Executive David Schwimmer said on Friday.
“We’re in a strong financial position,” Schwimmer told an online investor event. “We remain confident in achieving financial targets that we set out when we announced the transaction.”
So far “run rate” savings of 40 million pounds ($55 million) have been made as integration remains on track, and leverage has been cut by 4 billion pounds, he said.
LSEG was continuing an investment programme in Refinitiv and its terminals begun by its previous owner, U.S. private equity firm Blackstone, Schwimmer said.
The terminals, Refinitiv’s flagship product, are used by traders and investors to access data and market-moving news.
“We have a high level of confidence that we will deliver revenue growth across data and analytics of 4-6% per annum over the medium term,” Schwimmer said.
The LSE’s acquisition of Refinitiv turned the exchange into the second largest financial data company after Bloomberg LP.
In March LSE shares tumbled from around 9,300 pence to just over 8,000 pence on details of costs for upgrading the Refinitiv platform.
The exchange said in April it was on track to achieve 25% of an announced 350 million pound savings target by the end of 2021, with guidance on 850 million pounds in capital expenditure and 150 million pounds in operational costs for 2021 also unchanged.
“This business has momentum,” said Andrea Remyn Stone, the former Bloomberg executive who became LSEG’s Group Head of Data & Analytics on Thursday, replacing David Craig, former Refinitiv CEO.
Costs and capital expenditure will be updated next month when the exchange reports results.
LSEG shares were trading up 0.5% at 7,914 pence, little changed since the investor event began.
Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, holds a minority stake in the LSE following the Refinitiv deal.
($1 = 0.7273 pounds)
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Jane Merriman and Jan Harvey)
Source: One America News Network
