LSE revenues up 19%

Source: Stock Market Digital

Date :11/07/2007 09:02:36

Record trading volumes in the first quarter has led the London Stock Exchange to announce today that it had “made an excellent start to the financial year"

The trading update was issued to coincide with the exchange operator’s annual meeting and is likely to be used by the board to justify its decision to reject a hostile bid from Nasdaq, the US exchange, at the start of the year.

Amidst the strongest primary market for six years, Clara Furse, chief executive, said the performance “underlines our confidence in an excellent outcome for the full year”.

Revenues during the first quarter rose 19 percent to £100.1 million.

The LSE is now in the middle of a tie-up with Borsa Italiana valuing the Italian stock exchange at £1.1 billion.

The LSE said it would post a circular to shareholders about the deal later this month and hold a special meeting to approve it in the first half of August.

It also said it had bought back £6 million shares at a cost of £77.3m during the three months to June 30, and had now completed £137 million of its £250 million buy-back programme.

The strongest increase in revenues came from issuer services, where revenues rose 34.7 per cent to £19.4 million.

During the quarter, 128 new issues raised a total of £10.2 billion, more than twice the £4.7 billion raised in the first quarter of the previous year.

The LSE has been particularly successful in attracting companies from outside the UK to list in London, with 14 new issues on the main market by international companies.

July 11 2007