London Stock Exchange Group
plc
Interim results for six
months ended 30 June 2024
Delivering on all fronts in
H1: consistent growth, improving profitability, strong product
pipeline and significant shareholder returns
David Schwimmer, CEO
said:
"We have finished the first half
strongly, maintaining our momentum in Q2 with every business line
contributing to revenue growth. This reflects the strength of our
proposition, the improvements we have made to our products and the
depth of our relationships with customers.
"Our high pace of innovation
continues. We have made significant enhancements to Workspace,
leading to several competitor displacements. We are building on our
leadership in data, expanding our pricing and reference content
substantially and adding over 70 new feeds to our low-latency data
coverage. The recent strategic partnership with Dow Jones also
brings leading breadth in news coverage. In FTSE Russell, we are
seeing strong demand for our differentiated climate transition and
multi-asset solutions. Our Post Trade Solutions businesses are
gaining momentum, particularly in FX forwards optimisation.
Tradeweb had an outstanding first half, growing share in a strong
marketplace. Our partnership with Microsoft is approaching
commercialisation as the first product becomes more widely
available by year-end.
"We are also delivering efficiency
improvements, with underlying margin improving year-on-year despite
ongoing investment, and we expect this trend to continue. We look
forward to further progress in the second half of the year, and are
reiterating all of our medium-term guidance."
|
Six
months ending 30 June, reported
|
2024
£m
|
2023
£m
|
Variance
%
|
|
Constant
currency variance
%
|
Organic
constant currency
variance
%
|
|
Total income (excl. recoveries)
|
4,204
|
3,990
|
5.4%
|
|
7.6%
|
7.1%
|
|
Recoveries1
|
185
|
189
|
(2.1%)
|
|
0.6%
|
0.6%
|
|
Total income (incl. recoveries)
|
4,389
|
4,179
|
5.0%
|
|
7.3%
|
6.8%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reported
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EBITDA
|
1,944
|
1,774
|
9.6%
|
|
|
|
|
Operating profit
|
812
|
745
|
9.0%
|
|
|
|
|
Profit before tax
|
693
|
662
|
4.7%
|
|
|
|
|
Basic earnings per share
|
64.7
|
77.2
|
(16.2%)
|
|
|
|
|
Dividends per share
|
41.0
|
35.7
|
14.8%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adjusted2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating expenses before
depreciation, amortisation and impairment
|
(1,759)
|
(1,718)
|
2.4%
|
|
6.4%
|
5.7%
|
|
EBITDA
|
2,040
|
1,888
|
8.1%
|
|
8.4%
|
8.4%
|
|
EBITDA margin
|
48.5%
|
47.3%
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating profit
|
1,563
|
1,434
|
9.0%
|
|
8.8%
|
8.9%
|
|
Adjusted earnings per
share
|
174.0
|
160.9
|
8.1%
|
|
|
|
|
Financial
highlights
|
|
(All growth rates
relate to H1 and are expressed on an organic, constant currency
basis unless otherwise stated)
|
|
·
|
Total income (excl. recoveries) up
7.1%; up 5.4% on a reported basis
|
|
·
|
Good momentum in Q2: Total income
(excl. recoveries) +7.8%
|
|
·
|
All divisions performing well: Data
& Analytics +4.3%, FTSE Russell +11.5%, Risk Intelligence
+11.5%, Capital Markets +17.4%, Post Trade stable after strong
2023
|
|
·
|
Annual subscription value (ASV) up
6.4% at June 2024, in line with
guidance
|
|
·
|
Improving profitability: Adjusted
EBITDA margin 48.5%, +120 bps. Underlying performance +50 bps and
FX-related impacts +70 bps
|
|
·
|
Adjusted net finance costs of £112
million, mainly reflecting the cost of
refinancing in the current higher interest rate environment and
higher net debt
|
|
·
|
Adjusted EPS +8.1% to 174.0p
reflecting strong income growth, good cost control and a lower
share count
|
|
·
|
Basic EPS -16.2% on a reported basis
due to increasing non-underlying amortisation from the Refinitiv
acquisition and a higher reported tax rate
|
|
·
|
Free cash flow up 29% to £761
million; leverage (net debt to EBITDA) 2.0x
|
|
Strategic progress and
outlook
|
|
·
|
All medium-term guidance reiterated:
mid to high single digit organic revenue growth annually,
accelerating after 2024; underlying EBITDA margin to increase over
time; capex to decline to high single digit % of income ex
recoveries over time
|
|
·
|
Strong cadence of product
innovation: multiple Workspace enhancements, significant expansion
of low-latency feeds, new climate transition and multi-asset index
products, initial traction in Post Trade Solutions
|
|
·
|
Dow Jones content agreement creates
leading news offering across LSEG platforms
|
|
·
|
Joint product development with
Microsoft on-track: first products in general availability in
H2
|
|
·
|
Tradeweb entering attractive
corporate segment with acquisition of ICD
|
|
·
|
Significant shareholder returns: £1
billion returned via buybacks in H1, directed at holdings of
Blackstone consortium. Interim dividend +14.8% to 41.0p per
share3, to be paid on 18 September 2024 to
all shareholders on the share register at the record date of 16
August 2024. The ex-dividend date is 15 August 2024.
|
|
·
|
Share overhang eliminated with
Blackstone consortium holdings now under 2%
|
This release contains revenues,
costs, earnings and key performance indicators (KPIs) for the six
months ended 30 June 2024. Constant currency variances are calculated on the basis of
consistent FX rates applied across the current and prior year
period (GBP:USD 1.243 GBP:EUR 1.150).
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 ISIN: GB00B0SWJX34; TIDM:
LSEG
H1 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 2024 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
and instructions below:
Webcast:
https://www.lsegissuerservices.com/spark/LondonStockExchangeGroup/events/b8c830f5-e9ae-41f0-9a5c-241701954862
Conference call:
https://registrations.events/direct/LON188024
Presentation slides can be viewed
at http://www.lseg.com/investor-relations
The interim results for the six
months ended June 2024 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/.
Contacts: London Stock
Exchange Group plc
Media:
Lucie Holloway / Rhiannon Davies
+44 (0)20 7797 1222
newsroom@lseg.com
Investor relations:
Peregrine Riviere / Chris
Turner
ir@lseg.com
Additional information can be found
at www.lseg.com