London Stock Exchange Group posts steady 2022 earnings, eyes buyback on Blackstone/TR stake

LONDON Stock Exchange Group reported slightly stronger than expected full-year income for 2022 on Thursday (Mar 2), and hailed its integration of Refinitiv as a success as it announced plans to step up its ownership of the data analytics group.

LSEG reported total income, including recoveries, of £7.743 billion (S$12.5 billion) in preliminary results for 2022, just above analysts’ consensus of £7.733 billion. It reported a basic earnings per share of 141.8 pence and a dividend per share of 107 pence, both above analysts’ forecasts.

“In addition to our existing share buyback, we are today announcing plans to seek shareholder approval for a buyback directed towards the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium’s stake, which will benefit all shareholders,” LSEG chief executive David Schwimmer said in a statement.

The directed buyback from the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium, from which LSEG bought Refinitiv for S$27 billion in January 2021, is expected to be up to £750 million by April 2024, LSEG said.

It said £300 million of a separate £750 million share buyback was executed in 2022, with the remainder to be completed by July 2023.

Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, owned about US$5.6 billion worth of LSEG shares as of Jan 31.

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Schwimmer said the integration of Refinitiv and a strategic US$2 billion partnership announced with Microsoft in December meant the group is “shifting from integration to transformation”. REUTERS