30th Jul 2026 10:22
(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Thursday launched a new round of share buybacks, hiked its interim dividend, and raised its financial guidance, following a nearly 30% increase in half-year profit.
The exchange operator and provider of market data and indices reported GBP1.28 billion in pretax profit for the six months that ended June 30, up 29% from GBP991 million a year before, as total income excluding recoveries rose 6.9% to GBP4.80 billion from GBP4.49 billion. Recoveries are fees for third-party content, such as exchange data.
On an organic, constant currency basis, total income excluding recoveries was up 8.4%, LSEG said.
Basic earnings per share rose 34% to 163.9 pence from 122.7p, prompting a 17% increase in the company's interim dividend to 55.0p per share from 47.0p.
LSEG also on Thursday started the first GBP700.0 million of a planned additional GBP1.4 billion share buyback, having completed GBP2.1 billion in share buybacks in the first half. The new buyback tranche will be run by BNP Paribas and completed by November 6.
Despite the strong results and returns plan, LSEG shares were down 1.6% to 9,048.00p on Thursday morning in London, amid continued investor concerns about the data provider's vulnerability to displacement by artificial intelligence.
RBC Capital Markets said LSEG's half-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was 2% above market consensus. Income was broadly in line, but costs were lower than expected, due to lower third-party services costs.
LSEG reported Ebitda of GBP2.52 billion in the first half, up 17% from GBP2.16 billion a year before. On an adjusted basis, used by market forecasters, Ebitda was 2.53 billion, up 14% from GBP2.22 billion. Adjusted Ebitda margin was 52.7%, improved from 49.5%.
Chief Executive Officer David Schwimmer said LSEG was enjoying "deep customer engagement on AI".
"Our 'LSEG everywhere' data strategy is making great progress in a dynamic market environment," Schwimmer said. "AI in financial services will drive enormous value, but comes with significant challenges for customers. We are the partner to help them address those challenges: we have the infrastructure, the proprietary data, the trust, the regulatory expertise and the institutional history.
"This is already evident in the complex and multi-layered data and AI solutions we are engaged on. Thousands of Workspace customers are now using AI Search, with very positive feedback."
Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, LSEG raised its Ebitda margin guidance at constant currency to a 100 basis point improvement from 80 to 100 points.
It raised guidance for organic constant currency growth in total income, excluding recoveries, to between 7.0% and 7.5% from 6.5% to 7.5% previously.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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