By Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) -The London Stock Exchange Group said on Thursday its first quarter growth was in line with plans as products from its partnership with Microsoft are due to be rolled out in the first half of 2024, as expected.
LSEG said total income, excluding recoveries, in the first quarter was 2.089 billion pounds ($2.61 billion), with gross profit of 1.893 billion pounds, in line with analysts’ consensus compiled by LSEG.
LSEG was “confident of continued growth and improving profitability”, adding that it was on track to meet all financial guidance provided during its November 2023 Capital Markets Day.
LSEG, which provides financial market data and analytics to banks and other financial institutions, said that organic annual subscription value (ASV) growth, a benchmark of recurring revenue closely watched by analysts, came in at 6% in the first quarter.
Good underlying growth from strong retention, robust sales and pricing, was partly offset by increasing impact of Credit Suisse losses, as expected, it said, a reference to the forced takeover of the Swiss bank by its domestic rival UBS.
Organic ASV growth is expected to remain around these levels throughout 2024, despite further Credit Suisse impact, LSEG said.
“We have started the year well, delivering another quarter of solid growth consistent with our plans,” LSEG CEO David Schwimmer said in a trading statement.
“We continue to make strong progress in our Microsoft partnership, with a number of products expected to be in external pilot or general release this half.”
LSEG is looking ahead to developing its partnership with Microsoft as it completes the integration of data and analytics company Refinitiv it bought in 2021. The deal turned the 300-year-old-bourse into a company where data and analytics account for about 70% of the business.
LSEG said that 500 million pounds in a directed buyback was completed in the first quarter, and that it was targeting a billion of total buybacks in 2024.
Thomson Reuters, owner of Reuters News, holds a minority stake in LSEG, which pays Reuters for news.
($1 = 0.8018 pounds)
(Reporting by Huw Jones, editing by Sinead Cruise and Tomasz Janowski)
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