Activist investor Elliott builds stake in LSEG, source says

By Charlie Conchie

Feb 11 (Reuters) – Activist investor Elliott has built a stake in the London Stock Exchange Group and is engaging with the company to drive performance, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Shares in LSEG were up 2.3% in early trading after initially jumping 7%. Its stock has fallen by more than 35% in the past 12 months, including the selloff in global software stocks last week that wiped out nearly $1 trillion in their combined value.

Data and analytics group LSEG, which also operates the London Stock Exchange, has been battling concerns that rising competition and artificial intelligence will squeeze its income, a worry also plaguing the broader software and services sector.

Elliott Management’s exact shareholding was unclear and the fund had been in talks with LSEG to help engineer an improvement, and encourage the group to consider a fresh share buyback and focus on closing in on rivals, the source said, confirming an initial report by the Financial Times.

The FT also reported that Elliott does not want LSEG to consider a full sale or a spin-off of its stock exchange business.

Elliott and LSEG declined to comment when contacted by Reuters, which provides news for LSEG’s news and data terminal Workspace.

The stake marks a fresh major campaign by the U.S.-based investor in a British company after it heavily pressured oil major BP to tighten its operations and boost cash flow.

(Reporting by Charlie Conchie and Anousha Sakoui in London, and Pushkala Aripaka and Devika Nair in Bengaluru ; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Subhranshu Sahu and Toby Chopra)