26th Feb 2026 09:18
(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Thursday launched a new GBP3 billion share buyback as profit soared on the back of broad-based income growth.
The exchange operator and data provider said pretax profit rose 57% to GBP1.97 billion in 2025 from GBP1.26 billion the year prior.
Total income excluding recoveries was up 5.8% to GBP8.99 billion from GBP8.49 billion. Including recoveries, it rose 5.5% to GBP9.35 billion from GBP8.89 billion.
LSEG highlighted "broad-based" income growth with Data & Analytics up 5.0%, FTSE Russell up 7.3%, Risk Intelligence up 11.7% and Markets 8.9%.
Basic earnings per share shot up 85% to 238.4 pence from 128.8p and the dividend was hiked 15% to 150p per share from 130p.
In addition, the firm announced a new GBP3 billion share buyback programme, to be completed by February 2027.
Chief Executive David Schwimmer said: "We have achieved another year of very strong financial performance, driving continued top line momentum through significant investment in our product right across the business, bold strategic choices and an enduring focus on partnership with our customers."
The CEO said LSEG is positioning "ourselves as the partner of choice for licensed, trusted data as the use of AI in decision-making scales - and we are seeing very positive signs of adoption."
Annual subscription value growth at December was 5.9%, LSEG said, ahead of company guidance of 5.8% provided at the third quarter results.
For 2026, LSEG forecast organic constant currency growth in total income (excluding recoveries) of 6.5% to 7.5% and constant currency earnings before interest, tax, depreciation margin growth of 80 basis points to 100 bps.
In 2025, Ebitda margin improved to 50.3% from 48.8% in 2024.
In addition, LSEG targets equity free cash flow of at least GBP2.7 billion, up from GBP2.4 billion in 2025.
Noting it has "consistently met or exceeded our medium-term guidance framework we set out in 2023," LSEG laid out a new framework for 2027 to 2029 "reflecting our confidence in continued strong progress."
The firm is targetting mid to high single digit organic constant currency growth in total income (excluding recoveries) annually; underlying Ebitda margin to increase by a cumulative 150bps in the period; capex declining to around 8% of total income (excluding recoveries) in 2029; and fouble-digit compound annual growth rate in equity FCF per share.
Shares in LSEG rose 6.1% to 8,266.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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