London Stock Exchange schedules general meeting for voting on Refinitiv deal

LSEG plc today announces that the Listing Transactions Department of the Financial Conduct Authority has approved LSEG plc’s shareholder circular in relation to the planned $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv, a provider of data, analytics, trading, and risk assessment tools.

LSEG plc has published the Circular and will convene a general meeting of LSEG plc’s shareholders at 10.30 a.m. on November 26, 2019 at Butchers’ Hall, 87 Bartholomew Close, London EC1A 7EB, to consider and approve the transaction.

The deal is conditional upon the approval of LSEG plc’s shareholders. In order to approve the transaction, LSEG plc’s shareholders who together represent a simple majority of the LSEG plc shares voted at the LSEG General Meeting (whether in person or by proxy) must vote to approve the resolutions put to the LSEG General Meeting.

The Transaction is also conditional upon, among other things, the receipt of relevant antitrust and regulatory clearances. In addition, the deal is conditional on the FCA and London Stock Exchange agreeing to re-admit LSEG plc’s enlarged voting ordinary share capital to the premium listing segment of the Official List and to trading on London Stock Exchange’s Main Market for listed securities, The completion of the transaction is expected to occur during the second half of 2020.

In October 2019, after HKEX said it would not proceed with a firm offer for LSEG, LSEG stressed that it remains committed to and continues to make good progress on its proposed acquisition of Refinitiv.

Let’s recall that LSEG agreed and announced the acquisition of Refinitiv on August 1, 2019. The Exchange views the deal as a transformational transaction, strategically and financially. The combined global business will be headquartered and domiciled in the UK with a premium listing in London.