The London Stock Exchange Group offices are seen in the City of London, Britain, Dec. 29, 2017.Toby Melville/Reuters
London Stock Exchange said on Tuesday that it should complete its $27-billion acquisition of Refinitiv on Jan. 29, as it bulks up into a major financial data provider to compete with Bloomberg.
The company said it expected all outstanding regulatory approvals for the deal to come “shortly”, enabling it to close the all-share deal in coming days. The deal was approved by the European Union on Jan. 13.
The market for financial information has exploded with the advent of computer-driven trading, triggering a flurry of takeovers as companies seek to create one-stop shops to serve clients and get an edge over traditional rivals in supplying data, dubbed the “new oil”.
The European Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-nation EU, said last week its antitrust investigation found a number of concerns about the Refinitiv deal but that they would be addressed by “remedies”, which include the sale of LSE’s Borsa Italiana, which runs the Milan stock exchange.
Pan-European bourse Euronext has already agreed to buy Borsa Italiana for €4.3-billion ($5.2-billion), subject to the Refinitiv takeover getting the green light.
Refinitiv is 45%-owned by Reuters News’ parent Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters sold the majority of the business in 2018 to a consortium led by private equity giant Blackstone in a deal that valued the data provider at around $20-billion.
A combined LSE and Refinitiv will still be eclipsed by Bloomberg LP, but will outrank a combination of S&P and IHS Markit, whose $44-billion tie-up was announced last year.
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