Pearson’s FTSE sale
THE London Stock Exchange is buying Pearson’s stake in FTSE International for £450million to expand its financial products business.
It is buying the 50 per cent it does not already own in the operator of the FTSE 100 and other indices used by institutions to decide where to invest and to benchmark performance.
Pearson, owner of book firm Penguin, the Financial Times and an education publishing division, says the FTSE is no longer a core business.
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The LSE hopes to use the acquisition to challenge Europe’s top exchanges: NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex.
It also boosts the LSE’s links with asset managers, which use FTSE indices to benchmark fund performance. Traditionally the LSE has had stronger ties with banks and brokers.
David Lester, director of information services at the LSE and chairman of FTSE International, said it would help the LSE develop new products.
The LSE hopes to close the deal in the first quarter of 2012. It is the LSE’s latest move to control the various business units it relies on for trading, clearing, data and technology.
