REG - LondonStockExGroup - London Stock Exchange Group plc: Interim results

London Stock ExchangeAnnouncement

Thu 07:01

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RNS Number : 2829T  London Stock Exchange Group PLC  31 July 2025

London Stock Exchange Group plc

Interim results for six months ended 30 June 2025

 

Strong growth and margin progression, AEPS +20%, significant shareholder
returns. 2025 margin guidance improved, new £1 billion share buyback in H2

David Schwimmer, CEO said:

"We have continued our strong and consistent growth track record, with a good
performance from our subscription businesses enhanced by our leading markets
platforms, which drove upside from increased volatility in the period. At the
same time, we have improved our margins strongly as we realise the benefits of
our ongoing transformation and deliver attractive operating leverage.

"We have built a business which is strategically aligned to a number of
powerful growth drivers: the long-term growth in demand for data to feed and
drive the modern economy, including for AI models, the digitisation of
financial markets and the increasing demands of regulatory, financial and
reputational risk management. We continue to make significant investments in
product innovation for our customers, to generate growth over the long term.
The first half was marked by a consistent cadence of new product launches,
which we expect to continue in H2.

"Our strong cash generation supports significant shareholder returns: after
the £500 million buyback in H1, we intend to execute up to a further £1
billion in buybacks over the coming months and have raised the interim
dividend 15%. We also continue to evaluate inorganic growth opportunities.
Given the substantial improvement in profitability year-on-year, we are also
upgrading our margin guidance for 2025 to +75-100 bps from +50-100 bps."

 Six months ending 30 June, reported      2025     2024     Variance(    Constant currency  Organic

£m
£m      ) %

                                                                         variance           constant currency variance

                                                                         %                  %
 Total income (excl. recoveries)          4,489    4,204    6.8%         8.7%               7.8%
 Recoveries(1)                            183      185      (1.1%)       0.4%               0.4%
 Total income (incl. recoveries)          4,672    4,389    6.4%         8.3%               7.5%

 Reported
 EBITDA                                   2,155    1,944    10.9%
 Operating profit                         1,061    812      30.7%
 Profit before tax                        991      693      43.0%
 Basic earnings per share (p)             122.7    64.7     89.6%
 Dividends per share (p)                  47.0     41.0     14.6%

 Adjusted(2)
 Operating expenses before depreciation,  (1,847)  (1,759)  5.0%         5.3%               4.2%

 amortisation and impairment
 EBITDA                                   2,223    2,040    9.0%         12.1%              11.2%
 EBITDA margin                            49.5%    48.5%
 Operating profit                         1,726    1,563    10.4%        14.1%              13.4%
 Earnings per share (p)                   208.9    174.0    20.1%

 

 Financial highlights
 (all growth rates relate to H1 and are expressed on an organic, constant
 currency basis, unless otherwise stated)
 ·         Total income (excl. recoveries) +7.8% (Q2 +7.8%); +6.8% on a reported basis
 ·         All divisions performing well: Data & Analytics +5.1% (Q2 +5.1%); FTSE
           Russell +7.6% (Q2 +5.5%); Risk Intelligence +12.2% (Q2 +13.7%); Markets +10.7%
           (Q2 +10.9%)
 ·         ASV(3) growth at June 2025 +5.8% (Q1 2025: +6.4%), reflecting expected
           competitor response to our improved performance; final Credit Suisse/UBS
           adjustment expected in Q3
 ·         Significant margin improvement: Adjusted EBITDA margin 49.5% +100 bps.
           Constant currency margin +150 bps, with -50 bps of FX-related impacts. EBITDA
           +10.9% on a reported basis
 ·         Strong adjusted earnings growth: Adjusted EPS +20.1% at actual rates,
           benefiting from lower net finance expenses, the buy-in of LCH minorities in
           2024 and ongoing share buybacks. Reported EPS +89.6%, at actual rates
 ·         Strong cash generation: equity free cash flow £935 million, +43.6%, with
           EBITDA growth converted to free cash flow as a result of falling capital
           intensity, agile debt management and reduced effective tax rate

 

 Strategic progress
 ·         Strong pipeline of innovation continues: 250 enhancements to Workspace, Eikon
           sunset as planned; launch of DigitalAssetClear, and Treasury Futures clearing
           with FMX; FTSE Russell partnership with StepStone for private company
           indices
 ·         Further progress with Microsoft: launch of Excel and PowerPoint Workspace
           add-ins, Workspace app in Teams and Company Fundamentals in Data-as-a-Service
           platform
 ·         Engineering transformation driving product culture and margin improvement: 52%
           of engineering resource now in-house
 ·         Significant shareholder returns: £500 million returned via buybacks in H1,
           with up to a further £1 billion to be completed in H2; interim dividend
           +14.6% to 47.0p per share(4), to be paid on 17 September 2025 to all
           shareholders on the share register at the record date of 15 August 2025. The
           ex-dividend date is 14 August 2025

 

 Improved 2025 guidance
 ·         Organic constant currency growth in total income (excl. recoveries) of
           6.5-7.5% (unchanged)
 ·         Constant currency EBITDA margin +75-100 bps, up from +50-100 bps, and + c. 250
           basis points 2024-2026 against a 2023 baseline
 ·         Capex intensity c. 10% (unchanged)
 ·         Equity free cash flow at least £2.4 billion (unchanged)
 ·         Underlying effective tax rate 24-25% (unchanged)

This release contains revenues, costs, earnings and key performance indicators
(KPIs) for the six months ended 30 June 2025. Constant currency variances are
calculated on the basis of consistent FX rates applied across the current and
prior year period (GBP:USD 1.278 GBP:EUR 1.181). Organic growth is calculated
on a constant currency basis, adjusting the results to remove disposals from
the entirety of the current and prior year periods, and by including
acquisitions from the date of acquisition with a comparable adjustment to the
prior year.  Within the financial information and tables presented, certain
columns and rows may not add due to the use of rounded numbers for disclosure
purposes.

(1) Recoveries mainly relate to fees for third-party content, such as exchange
data, that is distributed directly to customers.

(2) The Group reports adjusted operating expenses before depreciation,
amortisation and impairment, adjusted earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation, amortisation and impairment (EBITDA), adjusted depreciation,
amortisation and impairment, adjusted operating profit, adjusted basic
earnings per share (EPS) and free cash flow. These measures are not measures
of performance under IFRS and should be considered in addition to, and not as
a substitute for, IFRS measures of financial performance and liquidity.
Adjusted performance measures provide supplemental data relevant to an
understanding of the Group's financial performance and exclude non-underlying
items of income and expense that are material by their size and/or nature.
Non-underlying items include: amortisation and impairment of goodwill and
other purchased intangible assets, incremental amortisation and impairment of
the fair value adjustments of intangible assets recognised as a result of
acquisitions, tax on non-underlying items and other income or expenses not
considered to drive the operating results of the Group (including transaction,
integration and separation costs related to acquisitions and disposals of
businesses), as well as restructuring costs.

(3) Annual Subscription Value (ASV) metric is based on subscription revenues
in Data & Analytics, FTSE Russell, Risk Intelligence and data solutions
within Markets. Organic, constant currency variance.

(4) ISIN: GB00B0SWJX34; TIDM: LSEG.

 

Interim results investor and analyst presentation, webcast and conference
call:

David Schwimmer (Chief Executive Officer) and Michel-Alain Proch (Chief
Financial Officer) will host a webcast presentation on LSEG's 2025 interim
results for analysts and institutional shareholders today at 10:00am (UK
time). This will be followed by the opportunity to ask questions via the
conference call line.

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

https://sparklive.lseg.com/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/4f27bfa3-a63e-4ad0-9c70-65edaa6b1880/lseg-h1-2025-interim-results
(https://sparklive.lseg.com/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/4f27bfa3-a63e-4ad0-9c70-65edaa6b1880/lseg-h1-2025-interim-results)

 

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

https://registrations.events/direct/LON379580
(https://registrations.events/direct/LON379580)

Presentation slides can be viewed at
https://www.lseg.com/en/investor-relations
(https://www.lseg.com/en/investor-relations)

The interim results for the six months ended June 2025 have been submitted in
full unedited text to the Financial Conduct Authority's National Storage
Mechanism and will be available shortly for inspection at
https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism
(https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism) .

The results are also available in full on the corporate website at
https://www.lseg.com/en/investor-relations/financial-results/
(https://www.lseg.com/en/investor-relations/financial-results/) .

 

LSEG Innovation Forum, 10 November 2025

 

LSEG will be hosting an Innovation Forum, with in-depth demonstrations of new
products across the Group, on 10 November 2025 at our offices in Paternoster
Square in London. Please register your interest at ir@lseg.com
(mailto:ir@lseg.com) .

 

Contacts: London Stock Exchange Group plc

 

Investor relations:

Peregrine Riviere / Chris Turner

Madeleine Yoxall / Sharon Muzikarova
ir@lseg.com (mailto:ir@lseg.com)

 

Media:

Lucie Holloway / Rhiannon Davies

+44 (0)20 7797 1222

newsroom@lseg.com (mailto:newsroom@lseg.com)

 

Additional information can be found at www.lseg.com (http://www.lseg.com)

 

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