London Stock Exchange Group plc (LON:LSEG) today posted its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2022.
Total Income excluding recoveries grew by 5.7% to £7,428 million including a 0.3% contribution to growth from acquisitions during the year, or by 19.6% on a reported basis, helped by an extra month’s contribution from Refinitiv (11 months included in 2021) as well as favourable foreign exchange movements.
Total Income including recoveries grew by 5.5% to £7,743 million, or by 18.5% on a reported basis. This was driven by good growth across all three divisions.
Adjusted operating expenses before depreciation, amortisation and impairment grew by 4.1% to £3,140 million. Excluding acquisitions and disposals, cost growth was 3.4%, reflecting continued strong delivery of Refinitiv-related synergies.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 6.0% to £3,550 million. EBITDA margin was flat year-on-year at 47.8%. Within EBITDA, income from Equity Investments was £12 million in 2022, down from £22 million in 2021.
Reported depreciation, amortisation and impairment of £1,900 million (2021: £1,570 million) includes £1,078 million (2021: £883 million) related to the amortisation of purchased intangible assets (mainly Refinitiv) as well as other non-underlying charges. Excluding these, adjusted depreciation, amortisation and impairment grew by 19.7% to £822 million on a reported basis and by 10.7% on a pro-forma constant currency basis, driven by LSEG’s continued investment in technology and new services and the capex associated with achieving the Refinitiv synergies.
Reported Operating Profit rose 33.1%, from £1,065 million to £1,417 million, helped by an extra month’s contribution from Refinitiv as well as favourable foreign exchange movements. Adjusted Operating Profit grew by 19.5% to £2,728 million. On a pro-forma constant currency basis, it grew 4.6%, with the strong income growth and good cost control highlighted above partially offset by higher depreciation and amortisation.
Reported Profit Before Tax increased by 38.8%, from £894 million to £1,241 million. Adjusted Profit Before Tax increased by 21.4% in the year to £2,568 million (2021: £2,116 million).
Adjusted profits attributable to non-controlling interests, mainly in Tradeweb and LCH, totalled £258 million for the year ended 2022, an increase of 17.8% from 2021.
Basic earnings per share from continuing operations was 141.8 pence (2021: 85.8 pence).
Adjusted earnings per share (AEPS) from continuing operations was 317.8 pence (2021: 272.4 pence). The 16.7% increase in AEPS year-on-year was driven by the growth in profitability and favourable foreign exchange movements.
The Board is proposing a final dividend of 75.3 pence per share, which together with the interim dividend of 31.7 pence per share paid to shareholders in September 2022, results in a 12.6% increase in the total dividend to 107.0 pence per share. The final dividend of 75.3 pence per share will be paid on 24 May 2023 to all shareholders on the share register at the record date of 21 April 2023.
