London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) reported a strong set of first half results but acknowledged that the disruption issues on news and data platform Eikon, which was part of the $27 bn Refinitiv acquisition, was not acceptable and promised to fix the problem.
There have been a number of outages – the most recent one on Monday. “We have identified the issue and are addressing it,” David Schwimmer, LSE’s chief executive, told reporters at the group’s interim results.
He said th
e problem was due to a corrupted server, which had sometimes prevented data from being distributed.
In its half-year report, the LSEG said it was ahead of schedule in its planned cost cuts related to the integration of Refinitiv and raised its full-year guidance for savings this year from £88m to £125m.
The exchange’s aim is to create a one-stop shop for data, trading and analytics but there were concerns regarding the costs of LSEG absorbing such a large company.
However, the group said interim adjusted margins of 49.4% would drop in the second half due to investment plans and higher travel costs, before reaching their 50% target in 2023.
The first six months saw total revenues rise 4.6% to £3.36 bn, aided by a 9.6% rise in capital markets revenue as listings enjoyed their best first half since 2014, and higher fixed income volumes. Meanwhile, operating profit jumped to £1.17 bn from £457m a year earlier.
Schwimmer said he expected the rest of 2021 to remain busy for initial public offerings (IPOs) and a modest number of special purpose acquisition companies to list.
©Markets Media Europe 2021
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