The London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LON:LON) has reported an above-forecast first-half profit and revealed that it is activating contingency plans in case Brexit next March occurs without a transition deal.
The FTSE 100-listed bourses operator posted a 21% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit to £480mln, up from £398mln a year earlier and beating the company-supplied consensus forecast of £459mln.
READ: LSE looking to go Dutch so it can continue to serve European customers in event of a ‘hard’ Brexit
The company’s first-half revenue increased by 12% to £953mln, up from £853mln, boosted by double-digit revenue growth in Information Services, clearinghouse business LCH and Capital Markets.
David Warren, LSE’s group CFO and interim CEO during the period – with David Schwimmer only joining as group CEO on 1 August 2018 – commented: “The Group has delivered a strong financial performance in H1, with revenue growth across our businesses as we invest further to drive further sales growth and operating efficiencies.”
He added: “We remain well positioned in an evolving regulatory and macroeconomic environment and remain focused on achieving the 2019 financial targets.”
The firm increased its interim dividend by 19% to 17.2p, up from 14.4p a year earlier.
In a statement appended to the results, the LSE revealed that its plans for Brexit include the incorporation of new entities in the European Union and applications for authorisation within the currency bloc for certain businesses.
It added: "The complexity and the lack of clarity of the application of a hard Brexit may decrease the effectiveness or applicability of some of these contingency plans.”