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LSEG buys Octus for $3.535bn in cash. 22 Oct 2026, LSEG will fund the $3.535bn cash purchase of credit intelligence provider Octus with external debt, adding private credit data and hedge fund customers. London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG) has agreed to buy Octus for $3.535bn in cash, funded with external debt. Reuters reported on 13 October that LSEG was negotiating with Permira to buy Octus for about $3.5bn, and said LSEG confirmed the talks. LSEG announced the agreed deal in a regulatory news service (RNS) statement at 7:00am today. | Term | Detail | | Acquirer | LSEG | | Sellers | Funds advised by Permira and Octus management, including founder Kent Collier | | Consideration | $3.535bn in cash | | Funding | External debt | | Expected completion | First half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval | Octus sells credit intelligence, meaning data and workflow tools on companies' debt. It turns hard-to-access credit documents, including covenants (loan conditions) and deal terms, into searchable data. LSEG expects 2026 revenue above $300m, with strong double-digit growth and an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin, a profitability measure, of around 40%. These are LSEG's own expectations. Octus has 750 customers and more than 40,000 users, including banks, law firms and buy-side firms, the investors that buy and manage assets. LSEG says Octus covers private and illiquid credit, debt that rarely trades, which complements its liquid-credit products such as IFR news, Yield Book and LPC analytics. It also gives LSEG a stronger footprint among hedge funds, where it has historically been under-penetrated. "Combining Octus' leading proprietary data and intelligence with LSEG's data and analytics business creates a powerful offering for our customers, and further accelerates our growth," said David Schwimmer, chief executive of LSEG. LSEG says the deal is neutral to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after completion and accretive, meaning it adds to earnings, after that. Medium-term margin guidance is unchanged. Leverage, debt relative to earnings, should sit near the upper end of LSEG's 1.5 to 2.5 times target range at the end of 2027, and return to the middle by the end of 2028. LSEG shares traded at 9,134 pence at 9:22am today, up about 3.9% from 8,790 pence yesterday. LSEG published a separate trading update at the same time, so the move does not reflect the deal alone.

LSEG raises outlook as flags attractions of USD3.54 billion Octus deal. Published on 10/22/2026 at 03:55 am EDT Alliance News (Alliance News) - London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Thursday lifted its annual guidance and confirmed a deal to acquire Octus for USD3.54 billion, "creating a leading proposition" in credit and private market data. In response, shares in the London-based exchange operator and provider of market data rose 3.1% to 9,062.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning. LSEG said gross profit improved 9.5% on-year to GBP2.21 billion in the quarter ended September 30 from GBP2.02 billion. Total income including recoveries climbed 8.4% to GBP2.50 billion from GBP2.31 billion, a touch above company compiled consensus of GBP2.48 billion. Excluding recoveries, total income climbed 8.5% to GBP2.41 billion on-year, and was 8.8% higher on an organic, constant currency basis, the FTSE 100 listing said. This was also slightly ahead of company compiled consensus of GBP2.39 billion. Data & Analytics and FTSE Russell were in line with consensus, Risk Intelligence 1% above, and Markets 2% above. Organic growth in total income excluding recoveries picked up from 7.1% in the second quarter, but was slower than the 9.8% advance made in the first three months of the year. For the whole of the year-to-date, it has risen 8.4%. "LSEG's record performance continued in Q3, with accelerating growth across our subscription businesses and sustained performance in Markets," Chief Executive David Schwimmer said. The CEO said LSEG is on track to deliver its strongest annual growth since 2018 and said the firm has the capacity for a further GBP1.0 billion to GBP1.5 billion of share buybacks in 2027. "We repurchased GBP500 million of LSEG shares in Q3, taking our cumulative buybacks so far this year to GBP2.6 billion. Under our current programme we expect to repurchase a further GBP800 million in Q4 and Q1 2027, concluding by February 2027, with the final tranche expected to start in the coming weeks," the firm noted. Reflecting the strong trading, LSEG lifted its annual guidance, now seeing organic constant currency growth in total income excluding recoveries of at least 8.0%. It previously saw growth between 7.0% and 7.5%. It sees now an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin expansion between 100 and 120 basis points, its view upped from 100 basis points. Equity free cash flow of at least GBP2.8 billion is now forecast, up from previous guidance of GBP2.7 billion. In addition, LSEG announced the USD3.54 billion acquisition of Octus from funds advised by Permira, and Octus management, including its founder, Kent Collier. LSEG had confirmed talks for a deal earlier this month. "The acquisition of Octus will transform LSEG's presence in credit and private market data, creating a leading proposition in these high-growth areas," LSEG said. Founded in 2013, New York-based Octus is a provider of credit solutions across intelligence, data and analytics, serving customers across private, illiquid and distressed credit. In 2026 Octus is expected to generate over USD300 million in revenue, with strong double-digit growth and an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of around 40%. It has achieved double-digit compound growth in revenue since 2022. LSEG said the Octus' product set and customer coverage are "highly complementary" to its existing fixed income products. "The transaction will unlock attractive synergies, both immediate and longer term, as LSEG builds differentiated solutions for customers," LSEG said. On completion, Octus will be part of LSEG's Data & Analytics division. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to LSEG's Data & Analytics organic revenue growth, and additive to LSEG's guidance for group organic subscription revenue growth of around 7% in 2027. The transaction will be neutral to adjusted EPS in the first full year after completion, and accretive thereafter. The acquisition will be financed by external debt. Allowing for forecast cash flow, the completion of the current GBP3 billion share buyback programme by February 2027, the completions of the Octus and Trumid acquisitions, and capacity for further share buybacks of GBP1 billion to GBP1.5 billion, LSEG expects leverage at the end of 2027 to be around the upper end of the target range of 1.5 times to 2.5x, before returning to the middle of the range by the end of 2028. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter (C) Alliance News - 2026

London Stock Exchange Group raises guidance on strong growth and AI demand. 22/10/2026 Fears that the London Stock Exchange Group would be disrupted detrimentally by AI appear to have been overblown. In fact, the opposite seems true. London Stock Exchange Group raised its full-year guidance after strong third-quarter growth and announced two major acquisitions to build its credit and fixed income business. The financial data and markets group said total income rose 8.8% on an organic basis, led by double-digit growth in its markets division, with its data and analytics subscription businesses also accelerating. It now expects full-year revenue growth of at least 8%, up from previous guidance, along with wider margins and stronger cash flow, putting it on track for its best annual growth since 2018. The company said financial institutions were increasingly using its data to build and scale artificial intelligence, with 95% of its top 200 customers now using its AI products. It struck a partnership with Nvidia and expanded one with OpenAI during the quarter, and said AI was driving demand for its data, with most of its AI deals involving customers buying additional datasets. - Advertisement - David Schwimmer, CEO said: "LSEG's record performance continued in Q3, with accelerating growth across our subscription businesses and sustained performance in Markets. Reflecting this strength, we are raising our full-year guidance for revenue, EBITDA margin and free cash flow. We continue to work with the world's leading financial institutions as they experiment with, integrate and scale AI across their organisations." LSEG also unveiled two acquisitions: it will buy Octus, a credit data provider, for $3.5bn, while its Tradeweb arm is acquiring the credit trading platform Trumid for about $1.75bn. These deals it said would make it a global leader in fixed income data and trading. The group is also returning large amounts of capital to shareholders, having bought back £2.6bn of shares so far this year.