THE GIST
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LSEG is leaning even harder into the part of financial markets that has been expanding fastest outside public exchanges, agreeing to buy private-credit data specialist Octus while delivering another strong quarter across its existing businesses.
The combination of an earnings upgrade, improving subscription growth and a strategically tidy acquisition was enough to push the shares around 4.5% higher.
WHAT HAPPENED
LSEG agreed to acquire New York-based Octus for $3.5 billion in cash from private-equity firm Permira, Octus management and founder Kent Collier.
Formerly known as Reorg, Octus provides intelligence, data and workflow tools across private, illiquid and distressed credit, serving more than 750 customers and 40,000 individual users across investment managers, banks, law firms and advisory businesses.
The company is expected to generate more than $300 million of revenue this year, with double-digit growth and an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 40%.
The acquisition will be funded with external debt and is expected to close in the first half of 2027. LSEG says it should immediately improve organic revenue growth in Data & Analytics, remain neutral to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year and become accretive thereafter.
The deal arrived alongside a strong third-quarter update: Total income excluding recoveries rose 8.5% to £2.41 billion (about $3.3 billion), or 8.8% organically at constant currencies. Gross profit increased 9.5% to £2.21 billion, while subscription growth accelerated across the group. Markets revenue grew 12.5%, FTSE Russell increased 10.2% and Risk Intelligence rose 9.8%, while Data & Analytics expanded 5.2%.
Management consequently raised full-year organic growth guidance to at least 8%, up from 7% to 7.5%, while expected EBITDA-margin expansion increased to 100–120 basis points.
Equity free cash flow is now expected to reach at least £2.8 billion, versus £2.7 billion previously.
WHY IT MATTERS
LSEG has spent years transforming itself from a traditional exchange operator into a financial-data and infrastructure company, and Octus pushes that strategy further into private markets.
Private credit has grown rapidly as asset managers, insurers and specialist lenders increasingly provide financing that once would have come from banks or public bond markets.
The problem for investors operating in that market is that private debt is much less transparent than listed securities. Loan documentation, covenants, restructurings and valuations can be difficult to access and compare, which makes proprietary data unusually valuable. That’s where Octus fits.
