London Stock Exchange Group <LSE.L> reported higher-than-expected third-quarter income on Friday, driven by higher clearing activity.
The LSE reported a 12% rise in total income from continuing operations to 587 million pounds ($754.88 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
The numbers will be a boost to LSE as it pushes on with a $27 billion plan to buy data and analytics firm Refinitiv after rebuffing a $39 billion unsolicited approach from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd <0388.HK>.
Hong Kong's bourse scrapped its approach for the LSE earlier this month after failing to convince LSE management and investors to back its plan for a big exchange business spanning Asia and Europe.
LSE confirmed on Friday that its shareholders will vote on buying Refinitiv in November, and that it expects the deal to go through in the second half of 2020.
Refinitiv is 45%-owned by Thomson Reuters <TRI.TO>, the parent of Reuters News.
For the third quarter LSE's total revenue was up 12% at 521 million pounds.
Analysts had expected total income of 565 million pounds, with total revenue of 506 million pounds according to company supplied estimates from 10 analysts.
The bourse operator also said its finance head David Warren would retire from the company and step down from the board by the end of 2020. Warren will continue in his role as chief financial officer through the close of the Refinitiv deal.
LSE, which was created in 2007 when London Stock Exchange merged with Milan's stock exchange, Borsa Italiana, announced its post trade businesses, which are currently reported separately as LCH and post trade Italy, will be aligned into one post trade division from the start of 2020.
The post trade services unit, which includes clearing, settlement and custody activities, reported a 19% rise in income from LCH, the clearing house which dominates euro swaps clearing.
LSE's capital markets division, which makes money from fees paid by companies listing on its markets and trading of stocks and bonds, saw revenue rise by 14% in the quarter, as strength in fixed income trading helped counter subdued equity markets trading.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
