London Stock Exchange To File $27B Refinitv Merger With The EU Authorities: Report
The London Stock Exchange Group will file its billion merger deal with financial data provider Refinitiv with the European Union antitrust authorities in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
What Happened
The stock exchange company has been in talks with the Brussels-based bloc over the scope of its investigation into the merger, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The merger between Refinitiv, which is jointly owned by The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) and Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI), and the LSE Group was announced in August last year.
Thomson Reuters would end up with a 15% stake in the resultant company, it had said at the time. Blackstone would own about 22% of the company, with LSE Group getting the rest 63%.
Whether the deal receives the clearance from the E.U. authorities depends upon the definition of "what constitutes the market against which the deal can be assessed," the parties settle on, according to the FT.
The parties will also have to prove that the customers will have enough options following their merger.
Why It Matters
The deal, if finalized, will triple the LSE Group's revenue to approximately $9.1 billion. It will also diversify the company's sources of revenue.
"[LSE Group] would pivot away from relying on uneven income from trading into data distribution, analytics and indices and become one of the largest exchanges operators alongside US duo CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) and Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE)," the FT said.
Price Action
Thomson Reuters shares closed 1.51% higher at $76.19 on Monday. Blackstone's shares closed at $58.43 with 1.23% gain.
LSE Group's shares traded 0.42% lower at $9,763.76 at the London Stock Exchange early Tuesday.
Photo Credit: Kaihsu Tai via Wikimedia
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