LondonStockExGroup - Trading Statement

London Stock Exchange

23/04/2026 07:00

RNS Number : 5635B

London Stock Exchange Group PLC

23 April 2026

 

 

 

 

London Stock Exchange Group plc: Q1 2026 Trading Update

Record performance: strong trading volumes, good momentum in subscription businesses, high pace of new product innovation; full-year revenue growth expected to be in the upper half of 6.5-7.5% guidance range

 

David Schwimmer, CEO said:

"We have had a great start to 2026 across the board: our leading, multi-asset class trading venues have been critical sources of liquidity, price discovery and risk management for customers, while engagement with our trusted data to inform decision-making has been at record levels.

"We have continued to execute on our LSEG Everywhere strategy for the distribution of AI-ready data. Over 150 customers have connected or are onboarding to our MCP server, and our new AI tools within Workspace are generating very positive feedback. Our focus through 2026 will be on roll-out and adoption of these services.

"We are delivering this high rate of innovation across the whole of LSEG: during the quarter we drove strong adoption of our digital asset indices, launched TradeAgent to broaden our Post Trade Solutions platform, executed the first transaction on the Private Securities Market and announced the launch of LSEG DiSH, which enables real-time settlement in commercial bank money across payment networks. We are confident in the outlook and the delivery of all of our financial targets for the year."

 

Q1 2026 highlights
(All growth rates on an organic constant currency basis unless otherwise stated)
·
Record revenue:Total income (excl. recoveries) +9.8%. Data & Analytics +5.1%, FTSE Russell +8.8%, Risk Intelligence +10.5%, Markets +15.5%
·
Continued strong subscription growth:combined growth of +6.3% in our subscription businesses1, with all three divisions accelerating over Q4 2025
·
Exceptional growth across Markets:driving very strong growth in trading volumes across multiple asset classes as customers look to manage risk in a more volatile environment
·
Further strong progress with LSEG Everywhere:over 150 customers connected or onboarding to our MCP server; Workspace AI tools now rolling out
·
Significant product innovation:strong demand for digital asset indices, launch of TradeAgent, first transaction for Private Securities Market
·
Dynamic capital allocation:completed £1.1 billion of share buybacks in Q1; well on track executing on £3 billion buyback by February 2027

This release contains revenues, cost of sales and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the three months ended 31 March 2026 (Q1). Constant currency variances are calculated on the basis of consistent FX rates applied across the current and prior year period (GBP:USD 1.318 GBP:EUR 1.168).Organic variance is calculated on a constant currency basis, adjusting the results to remove disposals from the entirety of the current and prior year periods, and including acquisitions from the date of acquisition with a comparable adjustment to the prior year. Certain columns and rows may not add due to the use of rounded numbers for disclosure purposes.

1. Combined total income (excl. recoveries) of Data & Analytics, FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence

 

 

Q1 2026: a record quarter

 

LSEG serves its customers through the whole of the trade lifecycle and the data value chain, across multiple asset classes. As market participants consume growing volumes of data to make trading and risk management decisions, these two threads are becoming more intertwined, reinforcing our strategy and strengthening our position as our customers increasingly turn to us for our trusted solutions. The adoption of AI and agentic solutions is accentuating this, as access to the deepest data sets that are constantly refreshed is essential for accurate decision-making. The multiple levers of growth for LSEG reflect the significant progress we have made both in transforming individual businesses and in combining them to create additional opportunities.

 

This is becoming increasingly evident in our financial and operational performance, as we delivered record revenue in Q1, with strong performances from all divisions, and increased the cadence of product development across the whole of LSEG.

 

Our customers recognise that our solutions are more valuable in an AI world. With our unmatched data, infrastructure and partnerships, we are uniquely positioned to partner with customers to seize new growth opportunities, significantly enhancing our products and opening up powerful new distribution channels for our data and analytics.

 

 

LSEG Everywhere

 

In 2025 we launched our LSEG Everywhere strategy, to make our unmatched, AI-ready data available to use wherever our customers are working. We made further significant progress in Q1 2026 as we drive adoption across our customer base.

 

In our Data & Feeds business, we have made our data available to licensed customers through a wide range of foundational models and cloud environments, including Anthropic, Microsoft, Open AI, Databricks and Snowflake. Since launch in December 2025, 90 customers have connected via our Model Context Protocol ('MCP') server, which delivers context, accuracy, control and measurability for data consumption. A further 64 customers are in the process of onboarding. The feedback has been very encouraging and we are refining our commercial strategy for this channel.

 

We continue to add data sets to our MCP server, with significant additions this week including estimates, corporate actions and company fundamentals. Over half of our non real-time data is now available via MCP, and in the coming months we will add transcripts, Lipper funds and FTSE Russell indices data. Through foundational work on our data estate over the last three years, in partnership with Microsoft, we have accelerated our speed of delivery significantly.

 

In Workflows, we are making very strong progress with the development and roll-out of AI functionality within Workspace. Our Workspace AI Search tool is in pilot with a wider launch planned in the coming months. This will become increasingly powerful as we introduce additional data sets. Our Workspace AI Deep Research tool, which combines our data with a number of leading foundational models, has tested very well with customers and generated strong feedback when compared with the equivalent tools of our competitors. This is now available through Microsoft Teams, as well as through the main Workspace platform.

 

We believe that, both through Workspace and our broader distribution channels, we can drive meaningful upsell and displacements over time.

 

 

Innovation across LSEG

In FTSE Russell, we launched 28 new ETFs in Q1, up from 24 in Q1 2025. In new growth areas, we drove a number of displacements with our digital asset indices, and made our first sales of our new private markets indices developed in partnership with StepStone.

 

Risk Intelligence launched its new Sanctioned Securities Data File, a granular, instrument-level dataset engineered to help financial institutions identify and manage exposure to securities with direct or indirect links to sanctioned entities. The data set links global sanctions designations and ownership and control relationships directly to financial securities.

 

We continue to build out our suite of services within Post Trade Solutions, working hand-in-hand with our industry partners. In March, we launched TradeAgent, a new post trade processing platform. TradeAgent helps industry participants reduce costs and risks associated with cleared and bilateral derivative processing by standardising the full post trade lifecycle.

 

During the quarter we also announced the H1 launch of a new digital settlement service, Digital Settlement House (LSEG DiSH), an open-access platform which enables real-time settlement in commercial bank money between independent payment networks, both on and off chain. Instantaneous settlement of cash means that LSEG DiSH can offer dynamic management of intraday liquidity and funding, as well as 24/7 management of settlements and margin. 

 

In our Equities business we executed the first trade on the Private Securities Market. This new secondary market provides for the first time private companies with access to intermittent liquidity auctions using the London Stock Exchange's public markets infrastructure.

 

Tradeweb continued its track record of innovation by entering into a strategic partnership with Kalshi, the largest regulated prediction market. The companies will collaborate with the goal of expanding institutional access to Kalshi's prediction market data and analytics and advanced market infrastructure for prediction markets trading to institutional investors through Tradeweb's global electronic trading platform. Tradeweb has also made a minority investment in Kalshi.

 

 

Capital allocation

We continued to execute our buyback programme in Q1, returning £1.1 billion to shareholders through the purchase of 12.8 million shares at an average price of £84.59. We are well on track to meet our plans to return £3 billion in total between our 2025 results announcement and our 2026 results in February 2027. We expect leverage to be around the middle of our 1.5-2.5x operating net debt to EBITDA target range at the end of 2026.

 

 

Financial guidance

We are confident of further growth and improvement to our EBITDA margin in 2026, leading to strong growth in equity free cash flow. We have started the year very strongly, and are therefore improving our guidance for 2026 as follows:

 

·
Organic constant currency growth in total income excluding recoveries of 6.5-7.5%, including an acceleration in our subscription businesses' organic growth. We expect growth to be in the upper half of the guidance range.
·
An improvement in constant currency EBITDA margin of 80-100 basis points
·
Capex intensity of c. 9.5% of total income excluding recoveries
·
Equity free cash flow of at least £2.7 billion, based on foreign exchange rates of £1 = $1.32 and €1.17
·
Underlying effective tax rate of 24-25%

 

 

Q1 investor and analyst conference call:

 

LSEG will host a conference call for its Q1 Trading Update for analysts and investors today at 08.30am (UK time). On the call will be David Schwimmer (Chief Executive Officer) and Michel-Alain Proch (Chief Financial Officer).

 

To access the webcast or telephone conference call please register in advance using the following link:

https://www.lsegissuerservices.com/spark-insights/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/c84f6435-49b9-4d74-80b3-314951ad0970/lseg-q1-results-2026-investor-analyst-call

 

To ask a question live you will need to register for the telephone conference call here:

https://registrations.events/direct/LON35022543

 

 

Contacts: London Stock Exchange Group plc

 

Investors
Peregrine Riviere / Chris Turner
Neha Kasabia / Sharon Muzikarova
ir@lseg.com
Media
+44 (0) 20 7797 1222
Lucie Holloway / Rhiannon Davies
newsroom@lseg.com

 

Additional information can be found at www.lseg.com.

 

 

Q1 2026 summary

(Commentary on performance is on an organic constant currency basis, unless otherwise stated)

 

Q1 2026
 £m
Q1 2025
 £m
Variance %
Organic constant currency
variance
%
Workflows
491
491
0.0%
2.9%
Data & Feeds
475
454
4.6%
7.3%
Analytics
59
59
0.0%
5.2%
Data & Analytics
1,025
1,004
2.1%
5.1%
Subscription
160
155
3.2%
7.7%
Asset-based
88
83
6.0%
10.9%
FTSE Russell
248
238
4.2%
8.8%
Risk Intelligence
153
143
7.0%
10.5%
Subscription Businesses1
1,426
1,385
3.0%
6.3%
Equities
114
102
11.8%
11.1%
Fixed Income, Derivatives & Other
452
394
14.7%
18.4%
FX
74
69
7.2%
11.8%
OTC Derivatives
183
161
13.7%
16.0%
Securities & Reporting
61
56
8.9%
9.0%
Non-Cash Collateral
29
27
7.4%
7.3%
Net Treasury Income
74
65
13.8%
17.0%
Markets
987
874
12.9%
15.5%
Other
2
2
0.0%
(6.1%)
Total Income (excl. recoveries)
2,415
2,261
6.8%
9.8%
Recoveries
93
93
0.0%
3.1%
Total Income (incl. recoveries)
2,508
2,354
6.5%
9.6%
Cost of sales
(289)
(308)
(6.2%)
(2.9%)
Gross Profit
2,219
2,046
8.5%
11.5%

1. Combined total income (excl. recoveries) of Data & Analytics, FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence

 

Total Income (excluding recoveries) was up 9.8% on an organic constant currency basis.
·
Data & Analyticswas up 5.1%, with growth accelerating as the strong gross sales performance delivered in H2 2025 flowed through to revenues. The contribution from pricing and retention was consistent with the previous year.
o
Workflowswas up 2.9%. Engagement was particularly strong in Q1 as customers turned to our trusted solutions to help them navigate market volatility in the period. Use of our shipping data saw a 3x increase in March and use of our Oil applications grew 75% from baseline levels. We rolled out Workspace AI Deep Research capabilities to around 1,600 users, receiving strong positive feedback.
o
Data & Feedswas up 7.3% with consistent and broad-based growth. Continuing innovation and expansion of our offering drove demand for our real-time services. Use (number of RICs accessed) of our cloud-based Real Time Optimised offering rose four-fold year-on-year in Q1, while consumption (number of server requests) of our Tick History data grew 39% year-on-year. Demand for pricing and reference services remained strong, supported by ongoing investment in content and an expanded presence in cloud-based platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake.
o
Analyticswas up 5.2%, reflecting strong Yield Book usage and continuing good sales of the Analytics API. Model as a Service went live in Q1, making third-party models from Societe Generale available via our Analytics API, and we further expanded our cloud presence with the launch of a Snowflake native application for Yield Book.
·
FTSE Russellwas up 8.8%. Subscription revenues accelerated as the renewal cycle on multi-year customer mandates normalised, as anticipated. Growth in asset-based revenues was also strong, reflecting product inflows and higher market levels. FTSE Russell expanded across multiple asset classes in Q1, winning a $3 billion sustainable infrastructure mandate in Taiwan, launching 6 fixed income ETFs in partnership with Global X, and 8 ETFs opting to switch to FTSE Russell's digital asset indices.
·
Risk Intelligencewas up 10.5% driven by strong customer demand for our services for their screening and identity verification needs. Customer receptivity to the World-Check On Demand and World-Check Verify solutions launched in H2 2025 has been strong, with customers valuing the precise, real-time intelligence on sanctions, politically exposed persons (PEPs), adverse media and enforcement actions.
·
Marketswas up 15.5%. Against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility, customers turned to our trading venues and post-trade infrastructure to meet their liquidity discovery and risk management needs. This strength was broad-based, driving exceptional growth in the Markets division.
o
Equitieswas up 11.1% with continued growth in data revenues and double-digit growth in secondary trading. The LSE's Private Securities Market successfully conducted its first trade in Q1 demonstrating the important role of the London Stock Exchange in building a seamless funding continuum across public and private markets.
o
Fixed Income, Derivatives & Otherwas up 18.4%. Tradeweb achieved new record high trading volumes in the first quarter, with $3.3 trillion of average daily volume across its platforms, supported by heightened market volatility and Tradeweb's innovative trading protocols. Interest rate products saw strong, broad-based activity driven by the uncertain macroeconomic outlook and inflationary and central bank policy concerns. Activity in credit, equity and money markets assets also remained robust, with all asset classes delivering double-digit growth. Amid the heightened volatility, Tradeweb continued to see strong customer demand for electronic execution and accelerating adoption of its AiEX automated trading solutions.
o
FXwas up 11.8%. Activity was strong across both our interdealer trading venue, Matching, and our dealer-to-client platform, FXall. The integration of FXall with Workspace is creating a powerful, seamless solution for the FX community, and a strong platform for innovation. In Q1 we added the capability for Corporate Treasurers to invite banks to bid for deposits through FXall/Workspace, creating a new use case for the platform.
o
OTC Derivativeswas up 16.0%. Elevated market uncertainty created additional demand for our trusted clearing infrastructure in Q1, driving strong growth in post-trade services across all asset classes. In terms of notional value cleared, all five of the busiest days on record for SwapClear occurred in March 2026. Expansion of Post Trade Solutions - our services for uncleared derivative instruments - continued in Q1 with the launch of TradeAgent, offering customers additional efficiencies in trade processing. LSEG's Digital Settlement House (DiSH) will go live in Q2, enabling real-time settlement in commercial bank money between independent payment networks, both on and off chain.
o
Securities & Reportingwas up 9.0%, reflecting continued growth in the RepoClear platform.
o
Non-Cash Collateralwas up 7.3%, as a slight decline in collateral balances was offset by improved returns.
o
Net Treasury Incomewas up 17.0%, with increased clearing activity leading to higher customer cash balances in Q1.
·
Group cost of salesdeclined by 2.9%, driven by the benefit from the revised SwapClear revenue surplus share agreement struck in 2025. Excluding this, cost of sales would have grown less than revenues at 8.5%,reflecting business mix and the partially fixed nature of the costs.
·
Gross profitwas up 11.5%, ahead of growth in total income excluding recoveries as a result of the decline in cost of sales.

 

Divisional non-financial KPIs

FTSE Russell

Q1 2026
Q1 2025
Variance
%
Index - ETF AUM ($bn):
- Period end
1,871
1,434
30.5%
- Average
1,906
1,449
31.5%

 

Markets

 

Q1 2026
Q1 2025
Variance
 %
Equities
UK Value Traded (£bn) - average daily value
6.8
5.0
36.0%
Fixed income, Derivatives and Other
Tradeweb average daily volume ($m)
All asset classes
3,347,592
2,547,321
31.4%
Rates - Cash
670,125
558,883
19.9%
Rates - Derivatives
1,410,838
884,151
59.6%
Credit - Cash
20,401
18,264
11.7%
Credit - Derivatives
48,523
30,427
59.5%
FX
Average daily total volume ($bn)
564
522
8.0%
OTC Derivatives
SwapClear - IRS notional cleared ($trn)
649
464
39.9%
SwapClear - Client trades ('000)
1,740
1,248
39.4%
ForexClear - Notional cleared ($bn)
16,387
11,113
47.5%
ForexClear - Members
41
39
5.1%
Securities & Reporting
EquityClear trades (m)
315
304
3.6%
RepoClear - nominal value (€trn)
90.1
84.3
6.9%
Collateral
Average non-cash collateral (€bn)
208.1
211.2
(1.5%)
Average cash collateral (€bn)
109.6
104.8
4.6%

 

Foreign Exchange

 

The majority of LSEG revenues are in US dollars followed by sterling, euro and other currencies.

 

USD
GBP
EUR
Other
Total income by division1,2
58%
16%
17%
9%
Data & Analytics1
63%
7%
16%
15%
FTSE Russell
73%
20%
2%
5%
Risk Intelligence
63%
9%
15%
12%
Markets
48%
26%
24%
2%

1 Total income includes recoveries

2 Percentage splits based on Q1 2026

Due to rounding, income percentages may not add to 100%.

 

Spot / Average Rates

 

Average rate
 3 months ended
 31 March 2026
Closing rate at
 31 March 2026
Average rate
 3 months ended
 31 March 2025
Closing rate at
 31 March 2025
GBP : USD
1.348
1.319
1.259
1.294
GBP : EUR
1.151
1.145
1.197
1.196

For definitions of technical terms - refer to the Glossary contained in the 2025 Annual Report, page 197.

 

Total income and gross profit by quarter

 

2025
2026
£m
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
FY
Q1
Workflows
491
477
476
481
1,925
491
Data & Feeds
454
453
449
466
1,822
475
Analytics
59
57
57
58
231
59
Data & Analytics
1,004
987
982
1,005
3,978
1,025
Subscription
155
159
157
159
630
160
Asset-Based
83
75
84
82
324
88
FTSE Russell
238
234
241
241
954
248
Risk Intelligence
143
144
144
148
579
153
Subscription Businesses1
1,385
1,365
1,367
1,394
5,511
1,426
Equities
102
103
102
105
412
114
Fixed Income, Derivatives & Other
394
383
375
387
1,539
452
FX
69
70
67
66
272
74
OTC Derivatives
161
153
160
167
641
183
Securities & Reporting
56
59
55
59
229
61
Non-Cash Collateral
27
30
30
30
117
29
Net Treasury Income
65
63
61
68
257
74
Markets
874
861
850
882
3,467
987
Other
2
2
2
2
8
2
Total Income (excl. recoveries)
2,261
2,228
2,219
2,278
8,986
2,415
Recoveries
93
90
89
88
360
93
Total Income (incl. recoveries)
2,354
2,318
2,308
2,366
9,346
2,508
Cost of Sales
(308)
(294)
(292)
(219)
(1,113)
(289)
Gross Profit
2,046
2,024
2,016
2,147
8,223
2,219

1 Combined total income (excl. recoveries) of Data & Analytics, FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence

 

Organic, constant-currency revenue growth by quarter

 

2025
2026
%
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
FY
Q1
Workflows
3.5%
3.1%
3.0%
3.0%
3.1%
2.9%
Data & Feeds
6.2%
6.9%
6.6%
6.7%
6.6%
7.3%
Analytics
7.6%
9.2%
7.7%
6.4%
7.7%
5.2%
Data & Analytics
5.0%
5.1%
4.9%
4.9%
5.0%
5.1%
Subscription
8.4%
9.3%
5.1%
5.7%
7.1%
7.7%
Asset-Based
12.5%
(1.4%)
18.2%
2.6%
7.7%
10.9%
FTSE Russell
9.8%
5.5%
9.3%
4.7%
7.3%
8.8%
Risk Intelligence
10.7%
13.7%
13.9%
8.7%
11.7%
10.5%
Subscription Businesses1
6.3%
6.0%
6.5%
5.2%
6.0%
6.3%
Equities
5.1%
3.7%
2.6%
9.1%
5.1%
11.1%
Fixed Income, Derivatives & Other
17.3%
18.5%
9.9%
9.5%
13.7%
18.4%
FX
12.3%
13.9%
3.1%
1.4%
7.5%
11.8%
OTC Derivatives
16.8%
12.1%
9.2%
9.0%
11.6%
16.0%
Securities & Reporting
(9.8%)
(9.9%)
1.8%
8.3%
(3.0%)
9.0%
Non-Cash Collateral
(0.4%)
5.9%
6.0%
9.1%
5.2%
7.3%
Net Treasury Income
(6.3%)
0.1%
(7.1%)
3.1%
(2.6%)
17.0%
Markets
10.5%
10.9%
6.3%
8.1%
8.9%
15.5%
Other
(52.1%)
(32.3%)
(0.3%)
(34.1%)
(35.6%)
(6.1%)
Total Income (excl. recoveries)
7.8%
7.8%
6.4%
6.2%
7.1%
9.8%

1  Combined total income (excl. recoveries) of Data & Analytics, FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence

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