London Stock Exchange Group plc: Interim results
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 variance % |
Organic constant currency variance % |
|
Total income (excl. recoveries) |
4,489 |
4,204 |
6.8% |
|
8.7% |
7.8% |
|
Recoveries1 |
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% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adjusted2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating expenses before depreciation, amortisation and impairment |
(1,847) |
(1,759) |
5.0% |
|
5.3% |
4.2% |
|
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%) |
|
· |
ASV3 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 share4, 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:
To ask a question live you will need to register for the telephone conference call here:
https://registrations.events/direct/LON379580
Presentation slides can be viewed at 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.
The results are also available in full on the corporate website at 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.
Contacts: London Stock Exchange Group plc
Investor relations:
Peregrine Riviere / Chris Turner
Madeleine Yoxall / Sharon Muzikarova
ir@lseg.com
Media:
Lucie Holloway / Rhiannon Davies
+44 (0)20 7797 1222
Additional information can be found at www.lseg.com
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