London Stock Exchange H1 income up, but warns about costs
London Stock Exchange Group reported a rise of 4.6% in revenue in the first half of 2021 on Friday, though warned about a pick-up in costs in the second part of the year.
The owner of Britain’s stock market said total revenue hit 3.36 billion pounds ($4.67 billion), while operating profit jumped to 1.17 billion pounds from 457 million pounds a year earlier.
The 300-year-old bourse is trying to transform into a one-stop shop for data, trading and analytics with its takeover of Refinitiv. However the costs of absorbing the data provider have worried some investors, sending its shares down 20% since early March when it gave more details on the integration.
The group said on Friday that about 77 million pounds of cost synergies from the Refinitiv takeover have been realised on a run-rate basis. It expects that to hit 125 million pounds by the end of the year, up from its previous guidance of 88 million pounds.
However, it warned that it expected further cost increases in the second half of 2021, caused by the return of COVID-related costs such as travel as well as ongoing expenses from legacy IT and inflation.
It said it would pay an interim dividend of 25 pence for each share, a rise of 7% from a year ago.
Refinitiv was carved out from Thomson Reuters, parent of Reuters News, in 2018 by a consortium led by Blackstone before being bought by LSEG in a deal finalized in January 2021. Thomson Reuters now holds a minority stake in the group following that deal, and Refinitiv pays Thomson Reuters for news it distributes on its terminals.
