Final Results
Summary by AI BETAClose X
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 variance % |
Organic constant currency variance % |
|
Total income (excl. recoveries) |
8,986 |
8,494 |
5.8% |
|
7.6% |
7.1% |
|
Recoveries1 |
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% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adjusted2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating expenses before depreciation, amortisation and impairment |
(3,711) |
(3,560) |
4.2% |
|
4.2% |
3.5% |
|
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%
|
|
· |
ASV3 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 MCP4 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 share5, 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:
To ask a question live you will need to register for the telephone conference call here:
https://registrations.events/direct/LON35294409
Presentation slides can be viewed at 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.
The results are also available in full on the corporate website at 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
Media:
Lucie Holloway / Rhiannon Davies
+44 (0)20 7797 1222
Additional information can be found at 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.
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.
Latest directors dealings
- 16 minutes ago Savannah Energy
- 1 hour ago Buccaneer Energy PLC
- 1 hour ago Savannah Energy
- 1 hour ago Carclo
- 2 hours ago Schroder Japan Growth Fund