LSE completes $27bn Refinitiv deal

The London Stock Exchange Group clinched a $27bn refinitiv deal and turn it into a global markets and information powerhouse to rival Michael Bloomberg’s financial data empire.

David Schwimmer, an ex-Goldman Sacs American banker and CEO of LSE said he was confident the business would meet the  high expectations set by investors, which have sent shares in the company up 24 per cent  since last weekend. He further said “We have a lot of confidence in our ability to generate the targeted growth rates of this business and in the importance of data in financial markets and capital markets.”

By acquiring Refinitiv, which is best known for Eikon desktop terminals the LSE has become less dependent on transaction based revenues and will pack up data assets that will further reduce its reliance on it UK and European business.

According to LSE, they will pay for the purchase by issuing $14.5bn in new shares and would taken on $12.5bn of existing debt. It will also gain Refinitiv’s  majority stake in the listed and fast-growing bond trading platform Tradeweb and outright ownership of currency trading platform F’Xall.

The LSE, is valued at £19.7bn by market capitalisation, on July 27. The combined group  would be headquartered in the UK and will have annual revenues in excess of £6bn if the LSE can navigate a long antitrust process, which is expected to involve regulators in probing whether its cumulative data offerings would give it pricing power over customers. The deal come at a time at a key time for London with the capital ‘s role as a global financial centre under question as the UK prepares for withdraw from the European Union. The LSE said it believes it could achieve annual cost savings in excess of £350m in the five years after completing the deal.

The Stock Exchange said : “ The digital transformation of the financial markets infrastructure  landscape, together with the increased potential information is driving customer demand for sophisticated data content and analytics provided on flexible and open platforms”.