By Heather Rydings
Ahead of the firm’s capital markets day on Thursday, London Stock Exchange Group boss David Schwimmer is keen to show that the firm is more than just the home of the FTSE 100 index.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Schwimmer emphasised that LSEG was a valued data provider as well as a stock exchange. He said he saw the upcoming two-day event as a good opportunity to help its investors “really understand the business.”
The emphasis on financial data provision comes after the firm announced a 10-year deal with Microsoft late last year. The tech giant took a four per cent stake in LSEG and agreed to be the architect for the company’s data infrastructure and help develop new data analytics products and services.
“There are desktop offerings out there with roughly the same user interface that people have been using for 20 years or so. The opportunity we have is to be the disruptor in this space and build a product that is easier to use,” Schwimmer said.
Schwimmer’s increased focus on data began with the £27bn takeover of Refinitiv, announced in 2019 and completed in 2021. Refinitiv provided data on shares and bonds, offered risk management systems to firms and was seen as a challenger to Bloomberg.
But back in August LSEG said it would retire the brand from its market data operations following a rocky reception amid concerns about the costs and complexities of integrating the business.
Nonetheless, in a testament to LSEG’s shifting focus towards data, the firm’s Data & Analytics segment recorded £3.9bn in revenue in the first nine months of 2023, up eight per cent from £3.6bn the year prior.
In contrast, its Capital Markets unit saw growth of four per cent to £1.1bn.
His comments to The Sunday Times come after he told Reuters late last week that London’s sluggish IPO market will bounce back as a rapid rate hiking cycle begins to slow and global jitters over inflation and political instability settle.
New flotations have fallen off a cliff this year as firms shelve plans to shift on the public markets amid turmoil shaking the markets.
Listings should recover even if the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza drag on, Schwimmer added, as pent-up demand builds from companies needing capital to develop their businesses.
