Thomson Reuters and Blackstone start sale of $2 billion LSEG stake

Investment banks managing the sale of 23 million LSEG shares had orders for all the stock in the offering, according to messages seen by Reuters after close of markets on Tuesday.

Thomson Reuters and US private equity giant Blackstone have been shareholders in LSEG since they sold financial data provider Refinitiv, the terminals and data business created by Reuters and later owned by Thomson Reuters, to the London-based group for $27 billion in 2021.

The latest share sale follows publication of LSEG's 2022 earnings last week which showed an increase in total income to £7.74 billion from £6.54 billion in 2021, beating analysts expectations.

Separately, LSEG plans to buy back up to £750 million of stock from the Thomson Reuters-Blackstone by April 2024.

Microsoft agreed to buy a 4% stake from the consortium as part of a wider strategic partnership with LSEG in December.

Following the latest stake sale, the Thomson Reuters-Blackstone consortium will not be able to offload any further shares for 90 days. ■