© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Signage for the London Stock Exchange Group is seen outside of offices in Canary Wharf in London, Britain, August 3, 2023. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) investors including Blackstone (NYSE:) and Thomson Reuters (NYSE:) have raised about 2.75 billion pounds ($3.44 billion) from the sale of shares in the bourse operator, bookrunners said on Thursday.
Blackstone and Thomson Reuters, the parent of Reuters News, have been trimming their stakes in LSEG since becoming shareholders through the sale of financial data provider Refinitiv to the British bourse operator in 2021.
The latest sale by the consortium, which also includes Canada’s CPPIB and Singapore’s GIC, was to institutional investors for around 25.5 million shares at 79.50 pounds per voting share, raising about 2 billion pounds.
The price reflects a 3.8% discount to LSEG’s 82.64 pound closing share price on Wednesday.
LSEG shares opened 2% down on Thursday and were trading at 80.80 pounds by 0703 GMT.
In a separate statement LSEG, which pays Reuters for news, said it had also agreed to pay the consortium nearly 750 million pounds to buy back more than 9 million shares directly at 78.94 pounds per share, representing a discount of 4.5%.
The company had flagged in March that it intended to pursue such a buyback.
A separate offer to retail investors was also agreed, the bookrunners said, as well as the sale of call options over about 7.9 million shares to Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BofA Securities and Morgan Stanley.
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