LSE hails dawn of new data era after completing Refinitive takeover

London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON:LSEG) said it has completed its US$27bn acquisition of financial data powerhouse Refinitiv.

With the admission to trading this morning of the stock issued as part of the all-share deal, Refinitiv’s previous owners Blackstone and Thomson Reuters now own roughly a combined 37% stake in the LSE, with a 29% voting interest.

READ: What’s behind LSE’s acquisition of Refinitiv?

Martin Brand, Blackstone’s senior managing director and co-head of US private equity acquisitions, Erin Brown from Thomson Reuters and Blackstone advisor Douglas M. Steenland, will now also sit on the LSE board as non-executive directors.

After first striking the landmark deal in July 2019, in a statement on Friday, LSE chief executive David Schwimmer said: “Completion of the acquisition of Refinitiv marks an important milestone in LSEG’s history.”

He added: “This transformational transaction brings together two highly complementary global businesses with a shared commitment to an Open Access philosophy, working in partnership with customers. LSEG is focused on delivering the benefits of the transaction helping customers to access data, trading tools, analytics and risk management across the financial markets and at scale around the globe.”

Brand said Blackstone is “excited to be a long term partner to LSEG as the company continues to grow and innovate”.

Under the deal, the vendors of Refinitiv are subject to lock-up agreements that prevent them from disposing of any of their shares for the first two years following completion, and then of disposing of more than one-third of the shares during each of years three and four following completion.