A boom in stock market flotations helped boost revenues for the London Stock Exchange Group by a fifth in the first quarter of its financial year, it said on Wednesday. Revenues surged 20 percent to £299.9 million ($514 million, 280 million euros) in the three months to the end of June, compared with £249.7 million in the same period a year earlier, LSEG said in a results statement.
The company added that, on an organic and constant-currency basis, revenues rose 12 percent in the reporting period, with growth across nearly all business segments. Total income grew 16 percent to £323.9 million, lifted also by clearing house unit LCH.Clearnet, in which LSEG bought a majority holding in 2012. The group's capital markets division posted a particularly strong performance, the operator of Britain's main exchange and Italy's Borsa Italiana said.
The number of initial public offerings (IPOs) or flotations across its markets more than doubled to 78 from 33 in the same period last year, it added. "We have made good progress in the first quarter, delivering a strong financial performance," said Chief Executive Xavier Rolet in the earnings release. In a separate announcement at the company's annual general meeting in London on Wednesday, LSEG chairman Chris Gibson-Smith announced that he would step down by the end of 2015. The company added it was meanwhile preparing a prospectus for a rights issue to help fund its proposed $2.7 billion acquisition of US asset manager Russell.