31st Jul 2025 09:40
(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Thursday lifted its annual guidance and announced a new GBP1 billion share buyback.
The exchange operator and market data provider reported profit growth of almost 50% and said all its divisions are "performing well".
Nonetheless, shares in LSEG lost 3.8% to 9,676.00 pence on Thursday morning in London. They are down 16% year-to-date.
Pretax profit in the first half of 2025 totalled GBP991 million, a rise of 43% on-year from GBP693 million. Total income excluding recoveries rose 6.8% to GBP4.49 billion from GBP4.20 billion. Including recoveries, the top line grew 6.4% to GBP4.67 billion from GBP4.39 billion a year prior.
Recoveries are fees for third-party content, such as exchange data, that is re-distributed to customers.
"We have continued our strong and consistent growth track record, with a good performance from our subscription businesses enhanced by our leading markets platforms, which drove upside from increased volatility in the period. At the same time, we have improved our margins strongly as we realise the benefits of our ongoing transformation and deliver attractive operating leverage," Chief Executive Officer David Schwimmer said.
"We have built a business which is strategically aligned to a number of powerful growth drivers: the long-term growth in demand for data to feed and drive the modern economy, including for AI models, the digitisation of financial markets and the increasing demands of regulatory, financial and reputational risk management. We continue to make significant investments in product innovation for our customers, to generate growth over the long term. The first half was marked by a consistent cadence of new product launches, which we expect to continue in H2."
LSEG said Data & Analytics total income, excluding recoveries, was 5.1% higher. At FTSE Russell indices, total income improved 7.6%, while in Risk Intelligence and Markets, growth was 12% and 11%, respectively.
LSEG announced a new GBP1 billion share buyback to occur "over the coming months". In addition, it raised its interim cash dividend by 15% to 47.0 pence per share from 41.0p.
"We also continue to evaluate inorganic growth opportunities. Given the substantial improvement in profitability year-on-year, we are also upgrading our margin guidance," Schwimmer added.
LSEG now expects constant currency earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation margin progress of between 75 and 100 basis points, the bottom end of the outlook raised from 50 basis points. The Ebitda margin in 2024 had improved to 48.8% from 47.2%.
The company maintained its constant currency growth total income, excluding recoveries, outlook at 6.5% to 7.5%. In 2024, it had risen 6.1% to GBP8.49 billion.
Earlier in July, the Financial Times reported that the index operator is mulling starting 24-hour trading in order to keep up with US counterparts.
LSEG is looking into the technical, commercial and regulatory implications of extended trading hours, the newspaper said, citing "people familiar with the situation". This could mean up to 24-hour trading, one said.
The London Stock Exchange, which has suffered a string of departures of high-profile listings to the US, currently is open only from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm London time, whereas New York markets have for many years hosted both pre-market and after-market trading sessions.
LSEG didn't comment on the subject in Thursday's results announcement.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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