Elliott Management yesterday ratcheted up the pressure on London Stock Exchange Group boss David Schwimmer as it demanded more ‘value-enhancing’ actions.
The feared New York-based activist investor, which is led by billionaire Paul Singer, went public for the first time since it emerged that it has taken a stake in LSEG.
It came a day after LSEG delivered a bullish results update, announcing a £3billion share buyback and brushing off fears that its data and analytics business – the group’s biggest division by revenue – faced disruption from artificial intelligence. The update sent shares up on Thursday, though the buyback fell short of the £5billion that had reportedly been demanded by Elliott.
And the activist made clear yesterday that it was not ready to take its boot off the throat of the group’s management.
Elliott said it welcomed LSEG’s buyback and initiatives to boost profit margins, as well as ‘improved communication of its AI strategy’.
But it added: ‘While this is a positive first step, we believe that there is still an opportunity for further value-enhancing actions.’
Under pressure: David Schwimmer said that the business’s focus would not be derailed by the potentially ‘unhelpful’ distraction created by Elliott’s activism
Elliott said it would seek to maintain ‘constructive dialogue’ to try to realise the group’s full potential and ‘close the valuation gap to industry peers’.
A spokesman for LSEG said it ‘maintains an active and open dialogue with our investors, while remaining focused on executing our strategy’.
Stephen Yiu, chief investment officer of the Blue Whale growth fund, another LSEG shareholder, also said after the results announcement that it wanted to see more.
Schwimmer said on Thursday that the business’s focus would not be derailed by the potentially ‘unhelpful’ distraction created by Elliott’s activism. Shares surged 4.2 per cent, or 360p, to 8860p yesterday, adding to the 9 per cent bounce seen after its results statement.
But they are down by a quarter over the past year.
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