REG - LondonStockExGroup - Final Results

London Stock ExchangeAnnouncement

Yesterday 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20260226:nRSZ4401Ua&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 4401U  London Stock Exchange Group PLC  26 February 2026

London Stock Exchange Group plc

Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2025

 

A year of strategic and financial delivery: strong growth, significant product
innovation, improving margins and cash flow; £2.8 billion returned to
shareholders; positive outlook

David Schwimmer, CEO said:

"We have achieved another year of very strong financial performance, driving
continued top line momentum through significant investment in our product
right across the business, bold strategic choices and an enduring focus on
partnership with our customers. Our unmatched combination of trusted data and
infrastructure is translating into deep customer engagement: in Q4 alone,
major financial institutions signed long-term contracts worth £1.9 billion to
access our leading data and workflow. With our LSEG Everywhere data strategy,
we are positioning ourselves as the partner of choice for licensed, trusted
data as the use of AI in decision-making scales - and we are seeing very
positive signs of adoption. In Post Trade Solutions, we have aligned ourselves
strategically with key customers through their investment in the business.

"Through the transformation of our systems and the use of AI and other
technologies, we continue to deliver material operating leverage, with
earnings growth significantly exceeding revenue growth. Given our strong cash
generation and balance sheet, we also accelerated returns to shareholders in
2025, buying back £2.1 billion of our shares as well as growing the dividend
15%. Today we're announcing our plan to execute a further £3 billion of share
buybacks over the next 12 months.

"We are very excited about the opportunities ahead of us: with our leading,
trusted data, ongoing investment in product innovation and the depth and
breadth of our customer relationships, we are very well positioned for
continued growth."

 

 Reported                                 2025     2024     Variance(    Constant currency  Organic

£m
£m      ) %

                                                                         variance %         constant currency variance %
 Total income (excl. recoveries)          8,986    8,494    5.8%         7.6%               7.1%
 Recoveries(1)                            360      364      (1.1%)       1.0%               1.0%
 Total income (incl. recoveries)          9,346    8,858    5.5%         7.3%               6.8%

 Reported
 EBITDA                                   4,365    3,945    10.6%
 Operating profit                         2,127    1,463    45.4%
 Profit before tax                        1,969    1,258    56.5%
 Basic earnings per share (p)             238.4    128.8    85.1%
 Dividends per share (p)                  150.0    130.0    15.4%

 Adjusted(2)
 Operating expenses before depreciation,  (3,711)  (3,560)  4.2%         4.2%               3.5%

 amortisation and impairment
 EBITDA                                   4,523    4,148    9.0%         12.3%              11.8%
 EBITDA margin                            50.3%    48.8%
 Operating profit                         3,506    3,165    10.8%        14.7%              14.3%
 Earnings per share (p)                   420.6    363.5    15.7%

 

 Financial highlights

 (all growth rates are expressed on an organic, constant currency basis, unless
 otherwise stated)

 ·         Total income (excl. recoveries) +7.1%; +5.8% on a reported basis

 ·         Broad-based growth: Data & Analytics +5.0%; FTSE Russell +7.3%; Risk
           Intelligence +11.7%; Markets +8.9%

 ·         ASV(3) growth at December 2025 +5.9%; adding a number of new KPIs relating to
           growth and retention

 ·         Improving profitability: Adjusted EBITDA +11.8%, margin +150bps, constant
           currency margin +210bps. EBITDA +10.6% on a reported basis

 ·         Strong adjusted earnings growth: Adjusted EPS +15.7% on a reported basis to
           420.6p, driven by revenue growth and increased efficiency. Reported EPS +85.1%

 ·         Excellent cash conversion: equity free cash flow £2.4 billion, combining good
           profit growth and reducing capital intensity

 

 Strategic progress

 ·         LSEG Everywhere: agreed trusted, AI-ready data partnerships with leading
           platforms including Anthropic, Databricks, Microsoft, Open AI, Rogo and
           Snowflake, based on MCP(4) infrastructure

 ·         Significant innovation across the Group: launch of Open Directory with
           Microsoft; approval of Private Securities Market and first trade on Digital
           Markets Infrastructure; development of DigitalAssetClear; and private markets
           indices partnership between FTSE Russell and StepStone

 ·         Strategic transformation of Post Trade Solutions with investment from 11
           leading banks for a 20% stake

 ·         Significant shareholder returns: £2.1 billion returned via buybacks in 2025,
           £415 million year-to-date and a further £3 billion planned to be completed
           by Feb 2027; final dividend +15.7% to 103.0p per share(5), to be paid on 20
           May 2026 to all shareholders on the share register at the record date of 17
           April 2026, subject to shareholder approval. The ex-dividend date is 16 April
           2026

 

 2026 guidance

 ·         Organic constant currency growth in total income (excl. recoveries)
           of 6.5-7.5%

 ·         Constant currency EBITDA margin +80-100 bps

 ·         Capex intensity c 9.5%

 ·         Equity free cash flow at least £2.7 billion

 ·         Underlying effective tax rate 24-25%

 

 Medium-term guidance 2027-2029

 We have consistently met or exceeded our medium-term guidance framework we set
 out in 2023. We are therefore putting in place a new framework for 2027-2029,
 reflecting our confidence in continued strong progress, as follows:

 ·         Mid to high single digit organic constant currency growth in total income
           (excl. recoveries) annually, including acceleration in our subscription
           businesses

 ·         Underlying EBITDA margin to increase by a cumulative c. 150 basis points
           2027-2029, as a result of continued strong revenue growth and ongoing
           operational efficiencies

 ·         Capex declining to c. 8% of total income (excl. recoveries) in 2029

 ·         Double-digit compound annual growth rate in Equity Free Cash Flow ('FCF') per
           share

 

This release contains revenues, costs and earnings and key performance
indicators (KPIs) for the twelve months ended 31 December 2025. FY 2025 is
compared against FY 2024 on a statutory reporting basis. 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 cast 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 and adjusted basic
earnings per share (EPS). 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 purchased intangible assets,
incremental amortisation and impairment of the fair value adjustments of
intangible assets recognised as a result of acquisitions, significant
impairment of software and other non-current assets linked to a change in
strategy or operating model, 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) Annualised 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) Model Context Protocol; open-source standard for connecting AI
applications to source data

(5) ISIN: GB00B0SWJX34; TIDM: LSEG

Preliminary 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 Preliminary
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://www.lsegissuerservices.com/spark-insights/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/c18b7e9e-cf1e-4dc9-9620-ba5e2bb1f71a/lseg-fy2025-results-presentation
(https://www.lsegissuerservices.com/spark-insights/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/c18b7e9e-cf1e-4dc9-9620-ba5e2bb1f71a/lseg-fy2025-results-presentation)

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

https://registrations.events/direct/LON35294409
(https://registrations.events/direct/LON35294409)

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

The preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 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/2025-preliminary-results
(https://www.lseg.com/en/investor-relations/financial-results/2025-preliminary-results)

Contacts: London Stock Exchange Group plc

Investor relations:

Peregrine Riviere / Chris Turner

Neha Kasabia / 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)

The information in the preliminary announcement of the results for the year
ended 31 December 2025 was approved by the Board of Directors on 25 February
2026 and does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 435 of
the UK Companies Act 2006. The financial statements for the year ended 31
December 2024 were filed with the Registrar of Companies, and the audit report
issued by Deloitte LLP was unqualified and contained no statements in respect
of Sections 498 (2) and 498 (3) of the UK Companies Act 2006. The financial
statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 will be filed with the
Registrar of Companies in due course.

In accordance with the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority, these
preliminary results have been agreed with the Company's auditors, Deloitte
LLP, who issued an unqualified audit opinion on 25 February 2026 on the
Group's Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2025.

The preliminary results have been prepared on a basis consistent with the
accounting policies set out in the Group's Annual Report and Accounts for the
year ended 31 December 2025.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  FR UVRRRNOUUUUR



            Copyright 2019 Regulatory News Service, all rights reserved