The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has reported a “strong financial performance” and continued revenue growth for 2019, compared to the previous year.
LSEG revealed that total revenue and total income were both up 8 percent to £2,056 million compared to £1,911 million in 2018, and £2,314 million compared to £2,135 million in 2018, respectively.
In its overview, LSEG reflected that in 2019, it announced the proposed acquisition of Refinitiv, which it said would accelerate its strategy, as well as continuing to progress financially, strategically and operationally across it core businesses of information services, post-trade and capital markets.
Commenting on the acquisition, David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG, said: “Refinitiv brings highly complementary capabilities in data, analytics and capital markets as well as deep customer relationships across a global business. Detailed integration planning is underway to ensure we are ready to deliver the benefits of the transaction to our shareholders, customers and other stakeholders. We remain on track to close the transaction in the second half of this year.”
In the 2019 report, LSEG also outlined that its post-trade divisions continued to perform well as its income was up 14 percent to £756 million.
Additionally in the post-trade space, Italy showed an income increase of 5 percent taking the total to £152 million.
Further financial highlights found that LCH over-the-counter (OTC) revenues were up 15 percent — up 13 percent on a constant currency basis — driven by record SwapClear volumes with over $1.2 quadrillion of notional cleared.
It was also noted that the cost of sales decreased 8 percent, in part driven by an updated SwapClear agreement with partner banks delivering a more than £30 million reduction in the year.
All LCH OTC clearing services, SwapClear, CDSClear, ForexClear and RepoClear, saw “record volumes” in 2019.
Elsewhere in the report, LSEG commented on its investment in Euroclear revealing that it had “further strengthened [the group’s] and Euroclear’s existing operational and commercial relationship to the benefit of our respective customers”.
Discussing performance for the year, Schwimmer said: “It was another strong year for London Stock Exchange Group – delivering a good financial performance, making meaningful progress executing on our strategic objectives, and taking significant steps on a number of group-wide initiatives.”
“The group continued to perform well, navigating an evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape and remains well-positioned for the future. We continue to partner with our customers to develop innovative services in a range of areas, from reference rate reform to sustainable investment,” Schwimmer added.
