(Reuters) – The London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE) <LSE.L> is in talks to combine with financial data analytics and trading platform Refinitiv, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people briefed on the matter.
A deal could be announced as soon as next week, the Financial Times reported, adding that it could not learn the terms of the transaction.
A deal for Refinitiv would come less than a year after private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc <BX.N> bought a majority stake in the business from Thomson Reuters Corp <TRI.TO>.
Thomson Reuters, the parent of Reuters News, kept a 45% stake in Refinitiv as part of the $20 billion (£16 billion) deal.
LSE, Refinitiv, Blackstone and Thomson Reuters did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Refinitiv bonds rallied on the prospect of a deal. Thomson Reuters shares jumped 4.3% to C$92.72 in afternoon trading in Toronto following the Financial Times report.
A merger would significantly expand LSE’s information services business, which the bourse operator has been building as a more stable source of cash flow than its primary transaction-reliant businesses.
LSE has a market value of about 19.3 billion pounds and a net debt of about 1 billion pounds.
LSE Chief Executive David Schwimmer is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> banker of 20 years who has raised expectations of big deals.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Huw Jones and Rachel Armstrong in London and Dan Burns in New York)
