London Stock Exchange Group Shares Hit 6-Month High As Shareholder Vote Looms

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is seeing mixed trading activity on its shares Friday morning after posting steady results ahead of a crux shareholder vote on its multi-million pound takeover of British clearing house LCH.Clearnet.

Its platform for trading shares in the UK saw a slight 2 percent decline across the 11 months to March, while its stock exchange in Milan saw a slight increase of 2 percent in the value of Italian equities trading.

The value of new listings was down to £34.6bn, an 8 percent fall, corresponding with a drop in IPOs of 13 percent.

Globally other exchanges have seen much sharper declines in IPO values.

According to Ernst & Young flotations on Asian markets plunged by 56 percent in value in 2011 compared with the previous year.

LSEG said its net treasury income, which is revenue from interest charges it applies when trades go through its clearing unit, "remained strong" in the first three months of 2012.

It has agreed to buy 60 percent of LCH.Clearnet for €813m (£974m).

The group's shareholders will vote on the deal on 3 April.

Xavier Rolet, LSEG's chief executive, said the deal is "transformative, delivering a strong, customer-focused clearing partnership between LSEG, LCH.Clearnet and our customers, the broker-dealer community."