Q1 2025 London Stock Exchange Group PLC Trading Statement Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Arnaud Giblat - BNP Paribas Exane - Analyst : I've got my question -- a follow up on the FTSE Russell division, please. I was wondering if you could give us a bit more color on the drivers behind the subscription growth at FTSE Russell. You mentioned the flagship equity products doing particularly well, but I was just wondering if you could split out the growth for me in terms of maybe new products, new clients, pricing. I mean a bit more color there could be helpful. And my second question is on the asset-based part of the business. Historically, you had a bit less -- you weren't as sensitive to growth in AUM. You'd have less pass through in terms of revenue growth, and that seems to have changed. I was just wondering, what's happening? Is this a dilution of Vanguard contracts or you're having more AUM that there are better priced. A bit more color there, that could help for us as well.

Question: Russell Quelch - Redburn Atlantic - Analyst : I want to ask a question on the ASV growth. So now we've fully lapped the impact of Credit Suisse and the data access deal both that came in the first quarter of last year. You have got the 70 basis points back in the ASV base in Q1, but the 10 basis points improvement we've seen in the quarter appears about 60 basis points short or else being equal. So I was wondering why we're not seeing that coming back. Has there been a deterioration in growth in subscription revenue outlook across the business to offset that? If you can unpack this as much as possible, that would be great around pricing retention because I think it's key to people's outlook for growth in the subscription businesses.

Question: Hubert Lam - BofA Global Research - Analyst : First one is on the sales cycle. I'm just wondering if you've seen any changes to the sales cycle, the sizes of potential contracts or any delayed decision making just given the macro uncertainty. Is this uncertainty delaying any potential wins that we may be getting? And that's the first question. I guess my follow up question is on the Microsoft pipeline. I think MAP, you briefly mentioned around Open Directory. Just wondering if the pipeline is still on track for most of the products to be launched by year end, particularly around Workspace.

Question: Ben Bathurst - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : It's on the Data & Analytics division. You've recently announced the appointment of new Co-Heads there. Just wondered if you could shed some more light on the thinking behind that decision. And perhaps how different you envisage Ron's role being going forwards in terms of involvement in the sales effort both for Data & Analytics.

Question: Enrico Bolzoni - JPMorgan - Analyst : So one on workflow. The sequential growth quarter over quarter in constant currency has stopped in Q1 after three quarters of marginal improvements sequentially. So I was wondering whether you could provide any color there and whether you can confirm that this is the line that we should see accelerating from the later part of this year or perhaps early next year once the new products with Microsoft are launched. And alongside that, given the stability in growth quarter on quarter, can you give maybe some color on new client wins or competitor displacement that might have occurred during the quarter?

Question: Bruce Hamilton - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : That was useful color on the no change in the sales cycle. I just wanted to check on the Data as a Service progress. Can you give a bit of an update on where we are in terms of sets migrating, how many clients are signed up. Maybe how that sort of momentum is building as we move through next year? I think previously, you said sort of critical mass in terms of data moving to the cloud would be probably sometime in mid 2026. Is that still kind of the case? Just came to get some more cover on that.

Question: Mike Werner - UBS - Analyst : A quick question on SwapAgents. I just wanted to know if there was an update as to the progress there within LCH. And yeah, I just wanted to see if any information with regards to kind of revenue contribution or or how you anticipate the trajectory of that contribution in the coming quarters would be helpful.

Question: Benjamin Goy - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : In workflows, you mentioned it was particularly strong in commodities, which is one of your strong businesses historically. I was wondering going forward, with the product innovation, should we expect commodities and FX outperform or do you expect to catch up in other business like equities or maybe wealth management or with you as wealth managers?

Question: Andrew Coombs - Citi - Analyst : Yeah. A couple for me, please. One on the markets, revenues versus volumes. And then just a factual one on the gain on the bond purchase. Let me start with the latter because it's kind of a very quick one. And can you just quantify the gain on the $250 million bond purchase in March? And then on the revenue versus volumes. Both on the equities and the OTC derivatives line. On the equities line, UK value trade is up 28% year on year. Obviously, the revenue growth is much more subdued, which you flagged is due to lower primary, but perhaps you can just unpack that one a little bit. And then on the OTC derivatives. Notional traded up 14% on SwapClear, but the number of client trades is up 37%, and yet the revenues are up 17% in that line. So again, anything you can unpack there would be helpful.

Question: Ian White - Bernstein Autonomous LLP - Analyst : Just two from my side, please. Firstly, could you provide some detail around how sign ups and usage of Meeting Prep have developed over the last few months? I think this was something that you highlighted with the full year update that if this is something now people could sign up for via Teams if I remember correctly and I was just trying to understand kind of how that has tracked so far. Secondly, just any thoughts on evolution in the sort of M&A dynamics? We're seeing more pressure on the private equity industry in terms of ability to exit investments. I wondered if that had created any new or different conversations for you in terms of looking at bolt-on acquisitions.

Question: Ian White - Bernstein Autonomous LLP - Analyst : Just to clarify. On Meeting Prep, is it kind of the case at the moment that you have this with a set of sort of core clients if you like and we wouldn't necessarily see more meaningful growth or sort of heavier usage until you had done some of the developments that you mentioned? Or is this a product where you see significant usage and value add for customers already? Is there any detail you can provide around that, please?

Question: Iulian Dobrovolschi - ABN AMRO - ODDO BHF B.V. - Analyst : I have follow up on Workspace and then another one on a different topic. To begin with the Workspace, given your plan for migration away from Eikon by June 2025, I was just wondering if you could remind us again on the pricing, but also timing strategy of that from the say June 2025 onwards, assuming that all users will be on the new product as of the first quarter of 2025. And then one on a different topic of the recent announcement of a partnership with AWS. I was wondering if you could share more color which services you plan to migrate to AWS and which will go to the Microsoft Cloud, broadly speaking. But also if you could share some thoughts behind the decision making. For example, why sticking to AWS Cloud and not Microsoft using your long term partnership agreement with them.

Question: Tom Mills - Jefferies - Analyst : I hear what you're saying on sales cycle earlier which was reassuring. I'm just wondering, buy and sell side end markets feel a little bit less healthy at the end of April. And perhaps people are expecting immediately post the US election. I'm just curious if you see any early modifications in the nature of the conversations you're having with either of those types of counterparties. Is there any greater willingness to expand the scope of enterprise agreements, product bundling environments to try and generate incremental savings?