LSEG investors offload $2.4 billion of shares in London bourse owner
Reuters
Published Mar 06, 2024 07:18
Updated Mar 06, 2024 08:42
LONDON (Reuters) -A consortium of investors in London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSEG) sold about 1.9 billion pounds ($2.41 billion) 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 (NYSE:BX), Thomson Reuters and other investors, "executed a monetisation" of about 21.5 million shares in LSEG.
Institutional investors purchased around 15.9 million shares at 8,980 pence per share, reflecting a discount of around 0.7% to Tuesday's closing price.
LSEG said it agreed to buy back around 5.6 million voting and limited-voting ordinary shares from the consortium in a 500 million pounds off-market transaction.
The company paid 8,917 pence per share. LSEG has said it expected to execute up to 1 billion pounds of share buybacks during 2024.
LSEG shares were trading 2.8% higher at 0813 GMT.
Data now represents 70% of turnover at LSEG, which posted total 2023 income, excluding recoveries, of 8 billion pounds, up 7.8% and at the higher end of a 6-8% forecast on Feb. 29.
LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27 billion 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, 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 $2 billion tie-up with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
($1 = 0.7868 pounds)
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Written By: Reuters
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