Fears that the London Stock Exchange Group would be disrupted detrimentally by AI appear to have been overblown.
In fact, the opposite seems true. London Stock Exchange Group raised its full-year guidance after strong third-quarter growth and announced two major acquisitions to build its credit and fixed income business.
The financial data and markets group said total income rose 8.8% on an organic basis, led by double-digit growth in its markets division, with its data and analytics subscription businesses also accelerating.
It now expects full-year revenue growth of at least 8%, up from previous guidance, along with wider margins and stronger cash flow, putting it on track for its best annual growth since 2018.
The company said financial institutions were increasingly using its data to build and scale artificial intelligence, with 95% of its top 200 customers now using its AI products.
It struck a partnership with Nvidia and expanded one with OpenAI during the quarter, and said AI was driving demand for its data, with most of its AI deals involving customers buying additional datasets.
David Schwimmer, CEO said: “LSEG’s record performance continued in Q3, with accelerating growth across our subscription businesses and sustained performance in Markets. Reflecting this strength, we are raising our full-year guidance for revenue, EBITDA margin and free cash flow. We continue to work with the world’s leading financial institutions as they experiment with, integrate and scale AI across their organisations.”
LSEG also unveiled two acquisitions: it will buy Octus, a credit data provider, for $3.5bn, while its Tradeweb arm is acquiring the credit trading platform Trumid for about $1.75bn. These deals it said would make it a global leader in fixed income data and trading. The group is also returning large amounts of capital to shareholders, having bought back £2.6bn of shares so far this year.