LSEG has raised its full year guidance and set out the acquisition of the credit data provider Octus in the same third quarter update, published on 22 October 2026.
Total income excluding recoveries rose 8.8 per cent in the quarter on a constant currency basis, taking the year to date figure to 8.6 per cent. Markets led the divisions at 12.5 per cent, followed by FTSE Russell at 10.2 per cent and Risk Intelligence at 9.8 per cent. Data and Analytics, the largest business, grew 5.2 per cent. Taken together the three subscription divisions grew 6.6 per cent.
On the strength of that, the group lifted its guidance for the year on three measures: revenue growth of at least 8.0 per cent, EBITDA margin expansion of 100 to 120 basis points, and equity free cash flow of at least 2.8 billion pounds.
David Schwimmer, Chief Executive Officer, said the group's record performance continued in the quarter and that it is raising full year guidance for revenue, EBITDA margin and free cash flow. He said LSEG is on track to deliver its strongest annual growth since 2018, and that the planned acquisition of Octus adds valuable proprietary solutions in the high growth illiquid and private credit space.
Octus is a credit intelligence, data and workflow provider serving buy side firms, investment banks, law firms and advisory firms, with a focus on illiquid and private credit and a high retention subscription model. Earlier in the month LSEG confirmed it was in discussions with Permira over the purchase, at a figure it put at approximately 3.5 billion dollars, and said any transaction would be subject to regulatory approval and would be immediately accretive to Data and Analytics and to group revenue growth.
The two halves of the announcement are more connected than they look. Data and Analytics grew 5.2 per cent against double digit growth in Markets and FTSE Russell, and it is the division that carries most of the group's revenue. An acquisition that is described as immediately accretive to that division's growth rate is therefore aimed squarely at the part of the business where the growth gap sits. Buying into private credit data is the fastest available way to lift a number that organic effort has not moved as quickly.
There is a structural logic to it as well. LSEG's data franchise was built on public markets, where pricing and reference data are abundant and the competitive question is distribution. Private credit is the opposite: the assets are illiquid, the information is scarce and the buyers will pay for coverage that is genuinely hard to assemble. That scarcity is what supports the retention rates and the pricing power, and it is what a public markets data business cannot replicate by extending what it already owns.
The caution is that the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and that a data acquisition of this size invites scrutiny of how much of a market one provider should hold. Guidance raised on trading already delivered is a firmer commitment than a deal that has still to clear its conditions, and the market will take the two at different weights.
