About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Refinitiv Shareholders Agree Merger Deal with LSE, David Craig Remains CEO of Refinitiv

Subscribe to our newsletter

Following our review of the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) proposed acquisition of Refinitiv through a transaction valued at $27 billion, Refinitiv today announced that its shareholders have agreed definitive terms with LSEG on the acquisition. The approval of LSEG shareholders will be sought at a general meeting to be held before the end of 2019, with completion of the deal expected during the second half of 2020.

The latest update on the acquisition states that Refinitiv CEO David Craig will continue in his role and join LSEG’s executive committee. The combined business will be chaired by LSEG chairman Don Robert and led by David Schwimmer, LSEG CEO. Craig comments: “LSEG’s business is highly complementary with Refinitiv’s leading global data platform, transaction and distribution network. Our aim is to capture the opportunity of data which we believe is driving unprecedented change in the global financial community.”

Setting out its views on the strategic benefits of the acquisition, the LSEG board listed: transformation to become a leading global financial markets infrastructure; enhancement of its offering in data and analytics; creation of a global multi-asset capital markets business with the addition of foreign exchange and fixed income venues; and expansion of both companies’ commitment to customer partnership and open access.

The transaction will result in Refinitiv’s shareholders – a consortium of investment funds affiliated with Blackstone, and Thomson Reuters – holding an approximate 37% economic interest in LSEG and less than 30% of the total voting rights of LSEG. Refinitiv shareholders will also be entitled to nominate up to three non-executive directors to the LSEG board, two of whom will be representatives of Blackstone and one a representative of Thomson Reuters.

LSEG’s contributions to the combined firm are its information services, comprising financial indexing, benchmarking and analytical services, and FTSE Russell; post-trade services, including its global multi-asset central counterparty clearing houses LCH and CC&G, and custody and settlement business; and capital markets initiatives including international equity, fixed income and derivatives markets.

Refinitiv will add the Eikon desktop terminal business and Elektron data delivery and hosting infrastructure, as well as extended market data, analytics and execution capabilities across asset classes and with a focus on trading, investment and advisory, wealth, and risk management; data and analytics, where it is a provider of company, economic, deal, pricing and reference data, low latency real-time data and desktop analytics; venues including the FXall and Matching Foreign Exchange trading platforms, and the Tradeweb fixed income trading platform (in which Refinitiv owns a majority interest); and a range of risk products supporting compliance.

Robert describes the transaction as ‘a defining moment for LSEG in terms of its strategic importance’. At Blackstone, Martin Brand, senior managing director, says: “Refinitiv has been an outstanding performer for Blackstone and our partners Thomson Reuters, CPPIB, and GIC. We believe the combination announced today creates a strongly positioned leader in financial markets infrastructure.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Navigating a Complex World: Best Data Practices in Sanctions Screening

5 November 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes As rising geopolitical uncertainty prompts an intensification in the complexity and volume of global economic and financial sanctions, banks and financial institutions are faced with a daunting set of new compliance challenges. The risk of inadvertently engaging with sanctioned securities has...

BLOG

AI Personalization in Trading: Where We Are and Where We’re Heading

Ivan Kunyankin, Data Science Team Lead at Devexperts. AI may have started out its brokerage career in back-office, enhancing operational efficiency by providing human teams with actionable client insights, but it’s now being promoted to more sensitive client-facing roles. As AI tools continue to evolve and become normalized in more areas of daily life, financial...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit London

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2025 – Thirteenth Edition

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook, a unique and practical guide to capital markets regulation, regulatory change, and the data and data management requirements of compliance across Europe, the UK, US and Asia-Pacific. This year’s edition lands at a moment of accelerating regulatory divergence and intensifying data focused supervision. Inside,...