ADVERTISEMENT

LSE’s $27 Billion Refinitiv Deal on Track for 2021; Shares Jump

LSE’s $27 Billion Refinitiv Deal on Track for 2021; Shares Jump

London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s $27 billion purchase of data provider Refinitiv is on track to win approval from European Union regulators early next year.

The LSE doesn’t need to make any further major concessions to secure approval from the European Commission, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.

The European Commission’s provisional deadline to rule on the deal is Jan. 21. Spokespeople for the LSE and European Commission declined to comment.

Reuters reported Wednesday that antitrust regulators are set to approve the LSE deal, according to people. Reuters reported that the LSE had tweaked concessions to address competition concerns, without providing details of the changes.

LSE shares rose as much as 12.6% Wednesday.

An approval would move the London exchange closer to sealing a transformational deal that will give the firm global scale and growth. This week S&P Global Inc. agreed to buy IHS Markit Ltd. for about $39 billion in stock, a deal that accelerates the wave of consolidation among the finance industry’s biggest data providers as firms vie to meet surging demand for data and analytics in increasingly computerized financial markets.

Regulators previously flagged potential issues with a large market share for European government bond trading, trading and clearing of interest-rate derivatives, consolidated real-time datafeeds and desktop solutions as well as index licensing citing the possibility that rivals could be shut out from accessing important Refinitiv data.

LSE inches closer to EU blessing on Refinitiv deal

LSE offered to sell Borsa Italiana to Euronext NV and two Italian banks to win antitrust approval. It also pledged not to discriminate against rivals in areas including interest rate derivatives and information services, people familiar have said.

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with Refinitiv to provide financial news, data and information.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.