London Stock Exchange Group posts steady 2022 earnings, eyes buyback on Blackstone/TR stake

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LSEG reported total income, including recoveries, of 7.743 billion pounds ($9.28 billion) in preliminary results for 2022, just above analysts’ consensus of 7.733 billion pounds. It reported a basic earnings per share of 141.8 pence and a dividend per share of 107 pence, both above analysts’ forecasts.

“In addition to our existing share buyback, we are today announcing plans to seek shareholder approval for a buyback directed towards the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium’s stake, which will benefit all shareholders,” LSEG Chief Executive David Schwimmer said in a statement.

The directed buyback from the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium, from which LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27 billion in January 2021, is expected to be up to 750 million pounds by April 2024, LSEG said.

It said 300 million pounds of a separate 750 million pound share buyback was executed in 2022, with the remainder to be completed by July 2023.

Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI), the parent company of Reuters News, owned about $5.6 billion worth of LSEG shares as of Jan 31.

Schwimmer said the integration of Refinitiv and a strategic $2 billion partnership announced with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) in December meant the group is “shifting from integration to transformation”.

($1 = 0.8344 pounds)