London Stock Exchange Group has published its preliminary 2019 results this morning. It picks out the following as financial highlights.

Total revenue and total income both up 8 percent to £2,056 million (2018: £1,911 million) and £2,314 million (2018: £2,135 million) respectively.

FTSE Russell delivered 10 percent revenue growth (up 6 percent on a constant currency basis).

LCH over-the-counter revenues up 15 percent (up 13 percent on a constant currency basis) driven by record SwapClear volumes with over US$1.2 quadrillion of notional cleared.

Cost of sales decreased 8 percent, in part driven by an updated SwapClear agreement with partner banks delivering a more than £30 million reduction in the year.

Continued cost discipline, operating expenses (excluding depreciation and amortization) up only 1 percent, helped by achievement of cost savings; total costs up 7 percent reflecting higher depreciation and amortization mainly arising from increased capital investment.

Adjusted operating profit up 14 percent to £1,065 million (2018: £931 million); operating profit down 2 percent to £738 million (2018: £751 million); adjusted EBITDA up 19 percent to £1,265 million (2018: £1,066 million) and EBITDA margin of 54.7 percent.

Adjusted EPS up 15 percent to 200.3 pence (2018: 173.8 pence); basic EPS down 14 percent to 119.5 pence (2018: 138.3 pence).

Proposed final dividend of 49.9 pence per share, resulting in a 16 percent increase in the full year dividend to 70.0 pence per share, reflecting good performance and confident outlook for the Group.

LSEG then turns its attention to continued organic and inorganic development, including:

Acquisition of Beyond Ratings, a provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data for fixed income investors.

FTSE Russell launched Climate WGBI, an innovative government bond index incorporating climate risk factors.

Record volumes reported by all LCH OTC clearing services – SwapClear, CDSClear, ForexClear and RepoClear.

LCH continues to facilitate migration to alternative reference rates and was the first CCP to launch clearing for €STR swaps.

ForexClear launched the clearing of deliverable FX Forwards.

Acquisition of a 4.92 percent minority stake in Euroclear with a seat on the Board, strengthening the commercial relationship between the businesses.

Capital Markets launched Shanghai-London Stock Connect with Huatai Securities as its first issuer.

Capital Markets launched the Green Economy Mark, enabling investors to identify issuers that generate 50 percent or more of their revenues from green initiatives; and the Sustainable Bond Market, a new dedicated segment for social and sustainability bonds.

CEO David Schwimmer said: "It was another strong year for London Stock Exchange Group – delivering a good financial performance, making meaningful progress executing on our strategic objectives, and taking significant steps on a number of group-wide initiatives.

"The group continued to perform well, navigating an evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape and remains well positioned for the future. We continue to partner with our customers to develop innovative services in a range of areas, from reference rate reform to sustainable investment.

"Our proposed acquisition of Refinitiv, a leading provider of data, analytics and financial markets services, will significantly accelerate our strategy to be a leading global financial markets infrastructure provider.

"Refinitiv brings highly complementary capabilities in data, analytics and capital markets as well as deep customer relationships across a global business. Detailed integration planning is underway to ensure we are ready to deliver the benefits of the transaction to our shareholders, customers and other stakeholders.

"We remain on track to close the transaction in the second half of this year."

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London Stock Exchange Group has published its preliminary 2019 results this morning. It picks out the following as financial highlights.

Total revenue and total income both up 8 percent to £2,056 million (2018: £1,911 million) and £2,314 million (2018: £2,135 million) respectively.

FTSE Russell delivered 10 percent revenue growth (up 6 percent on a constant currency basis).

LCH over-the-counter revenues up 15 percent (up 13 percent on a constant currency basis) driven by record SwapClear volumes with over US$1.2 quadrillion of notional cleared.

Cost of sales decreased 8 percent, in part driven by an updated SwapClear agreement with partner banks delivering a more than £30 million reduction in the year.

Continued cost discipline, operating expenses (excluding depreciation and amortization) up only 1 percent, helped by achievement of cost savings; total costs up 7 percent reflecting higher depreciation and amortization mainly arising from increased capital investment.

Adjusted operating profit up 14 percent to £1,065 million (2018: £931 million); operating profit down 2 percent to £738 million (2018: £751 million); adjusted EBITDA up 19 percent to £1,265 million (2018: £1,066 million) and EBITDA margin of 54.7 percent.

Adjusted EPS up 15 percent to 200.3 pence (2018: 173.8 pence); basic EPS down 14 percent to 119.5 pence (2018: 138.3 pence).

Proposed final dividend of 49.9 pence per share, resulting in a 16 percent increase in the full year dividend to 70.0 pence per share, reflecting good performance and confident outlook for the Group.

LSEG then turns its attention to continued organic and inorganic development, including:

Acquisition of Beyond Ratings, a provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data for fixed income investors.

FTSE Russell launched Climate WGBI, an innovative government bond index incorporating climate risk factors.

Record volumes reported by all LCH OTC clearing services – SwapClear, CDSClear, ForexClear and RepoClear.

LCH continues to facilitate migration to alternative reference rates and was the first CCP to launch clearing for €STR swaps.

ForexClear launched the clearing of deliverable FX Forwards.

Acquisition of a 4.92 percent minority stake in Euroclear with a seat on the Board, strengthening the commercial relationship between the businesses.

Capital Markets launched Shanghai-London Stock Connect with Huatai Securities as its first issuer.

Capital Markets launched the Green Economy Mark, enabling investors to identify issuers that generate 50 percent or more of their revenues from green initiatives; and the Sustainable Bond Market, a new dedicated segment for social and sustainability bonds.

CEO David Schwimmer said: "It was another strong year for London Stock Exchange Group – delivering a good financial performance, making meaningful progress executing on our strategic objectives, and taking significant steps on a number of group-wide initiatives.

"The group continued to perform well, navigating an evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape and remains well positioned for the future. We continue to partner with our customers to develop innovative services in a range of areas, from reference rate reform to sustainable investment.

"Our proposed acquisition of Refinitiv, a leading provider of data, analytics and financial markets services, will significantly accelerate our strategy to be a leading global financial markets infrastructure provider.

"Refinitiv brings highly complementary capabilities in data, analytics and capital markets as well as deep customer relationships across a global business. Detailed integration planning is underway to ensure we are ready to deliver the benefits of the transaction to our shareholders, customers and other stakeholders.

"We remain on track to close the transaction in the second half of this year."