The London Stock Exchange Group is nearing a deal to acquire credit data specialist Octus from Permira for $3.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. If finalized, the transaction would mark LSEG's largest takeover since its $27 billion purchase of Refinitiv in 2019, which transformed the company into a financial data and analytics powerhouse. Octus specializes in credit data including leveraged finance, private assets and bankruptcy markets.
LSEG confirmed it was discussing a deal, noting that acquiring Octus "would be immediately accretive to LSEG's data and analytics and group revenue growth." LSEG's shares fell 5 percent on that day. The company makes the majority of its revenue from selling data on a range of asset classes around the world to banks, brokers, investors and other financial market players. LSEG came under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management this year over its profitability gap compared with peers.
Elliott encouraged LSEG to do more share buybacks. The company also faced investor fears that advances in AI would disrupt its data business, but its shares have largely recovered from a sell-off in February. LSEG shares are down 1.7 percent so far this year.
Octus, formerly known as Reorg, was acquired by UK private equity group Permira in 2022 at a valuation of about $1.3 billion. The deal being discussed would mark a strong return for Permira under a relatively quick timeline versus the investments made by many rivals during that period. LSEG will report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing