5th Aug 2022 09:12
(Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Friday lifted its interim payout as profit surged, boosted by market volatility and its Refinitiv acquisition.
For the first half of 2022, the London-based exchange operator and financial data company booked a pretax profit of GBP803 million, reflecting a sharp 73% increase from GBP463 million a year before.
LSEG's total income excluding recoveries jumped by 24% year-on-year to GBP3.57 billion from GBP2.87 billion. Including recoveries, the measure was up at the same rate to GBP3.74 billion from GBP3.02 billion.
The stock exchange operator said its offering benefitted from market price volatility. Revenue from the Capital Markets unit alone jumped 34% year-on-year. Its largest revenue contributor, Data & Analytics, saw a top-line improvement of 26%.
Further, LSEG noted that this half-year period had an extra month's worth of contribution from Refinitiv.
LSEG completed the USD27 billion acquisition of financial market data and trading infrastructure provider Refinitiv in January 2021, ending a long process after first making its interest clear back in July 2019.
LSEG lifted its interim dividend by 27% to 31.7p per share from 25.0p. It will also launch a GBP750 million buyback, "phased over multiple tranches over 12 months". This kicks off on Friday.
Looking ahead, the FTSE 100 listing said it has good momentum going into the second half.
"We have delivered strong first-half results. All divisions have shown good growth with momentum continuing into the second half. Our financial targets are unchanged and we have made good progress in realising further revenue and cost synergies," Chief Executive David Schwimmer commented.
"We continue to execute on organic and inorganic investment opportunities to drive growth, build a more agile and efficient business and enhance our customer offering. We are well positioned for the current environment, providing high-value solutions for customer's critical needs," he continued.
Shares were trading 3.1% higher at 8,392.00 pence each on Friday morning in London.
By Abby Amoakuh; [email protected]
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