LSEG said at the weekend that it had noted media speculation that it is talking to a “consortium”, including investment funds associated with Blackstone and Thomson Reuters, about a possible acquisition of the group. LSEG said it could not be certain that talks would progress or lead to a deal.

“Under the key headline terms it is expected that LSEG would acquire Refinitiv for a total enterprise value of approximately $27 billion, with new LSEG shares to be issued as consideration in full for Refinitiv’s equity value, after adjusting for Refinitiv’s net debt and other adjustments,” LSEG said in a statement.

“The parties anticipate that the transaction would result in the Refinitiv shareholders holding an approximately 37 per cent stake in the enlarged group and less than 30 per cent of the total voting rights of LSEG,” it said.

Discussion about such a deal comes at a time when technology is upending how financial trading and information is handled, given rapid increases in speed and the advent of distributed ledger tech such as blockchain.

Refinitiv has been busy on a number of fronts. Earlier in July, it joined forces with Switzerland-based onboarding firm Appway, showing that the need to manage how clients are taken on board remains a major preoccupation for the wealth industry.

Digital transformation
“The digital transformation of the financial markets infrastructure landscape, together with the increased potential for innovation, is driving customer demand for sophisticated data content and analytics provided on flexible and open platforms,” LSE said.

“Against this backdrop, the board has conviction that a leading financial markets infrastructure provider must operate globally and across asset classes, with data management, analytics and distribution capabilities that can serve customers across asset classes and geographies,” it said.

Refinitiv delivers data, insight and analytics tailored to four customer types: investment and advisory, trading, wealth, and risk management. It serves over 40,000 customer institutions across 190 countries, including buy and sell-side firms, market infrastructure companies, governments, financial technology firms and corporations.

Refinitiv’s trading venues business includes the Tradeweb trading platform (in which Refinitiv owns a majority interest) and the FXAll and Matching platform.

Under the transaction terms, LSE Group would continue to be chaired by Don Robert and led by David Schwimmer, chief executive, with David Warren as chief financial officer.

Refinitiv was recently the headline sponsor for the WealthBriefingAsia 2019 Awards, held in Singapore.