LSEG to offload 20% stake in Post Trade Solutions to 11 global banks in £850m deal

London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LON: LSEG) has announced a landmark transaction involving the sale of a 20% stake in its Post Trade Solutions business to a syndicate of 11 global investment banks, alongside a strategic revision of SwapClear revenue sharing arrangements. The deal values Post Trade Solutions at £850 million and introduces a new structure aimed at strengthening long-term alignment between London Stock Exchange Group PLC and its largest clearing clients.

As part of the transaction, the investing banks—comprising Bank of America, Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Société Générale, and UBS—will each acquire a shareholding in Post Trade Solutions for a combined cash consideration of £170 million. This values the entire Post Trade Solutions unit at £850 million, based on its 2024 financial performance which included £96 million in revenue and £16 million in normalised EBITDA.

The announcement marks a continuation of London Stock Exchange Group PLC’s long-standing approach of embedding strategic partnerships into the infrastructure of global capital markets. The Post Trade Solutions unit, which includes LSEG-owned entities such as Acadia, Quantile, SwapAgent, and TradeAgent, provides risk management and optimisation tools to the uncleared derivatives market—an area where cost pressures and regulatory demands have accelerated the need for capital and operational efficiency.

What strategic benefits does LSEG gain by onboarding banks into Post Trade Solutions equity?

For London Stock Exchange Group PLC, the addition of these banks as equity partners goes beyond capital infusion. The strategic intent is to replicate the collaborative success model pioneered with the LCH SwapClear business over the past 25 years. By offering equity participation, LSEG is effectively inviting its largest post-trade customers to share in the future governance and growth of the platform.

Three directors nominated by the bank consortium will join the board of Post Trade Solutions, giving the group a direct voice in the roadmap of services targeting the bilateral over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. The structure mirrors the founding framework of SwapClear, where banks acted not only as users but co-creators of an industry utility.

LSEG has historically maintained a collaborative approach to clearing infrastructure, recognizing that aligned incentives are critical to building sustainable and scalable platforms in the derivatives market. The inclusion of major counterparties in Post Trade Solutions governance is being positioned as a natural extension of this strategy.

How is the SwapClear revenue model changing and what are the implications for LSEG’s earnings?

As part of the same announcement, London Stock Exchange Group PLC confirmed a fundamental change in the SwapClear revenue-sharing arrangement. Previously, the founding banks of SwapClear were entitled to approximately 30% of the revenue surplus through 2035. This surplus was derived after operational and developmental costs of the SwapClear and SwapAgent businesses were deducted.

Following the new agreement, the revenue surplus share for these banks will fall to 15% in 2025—retroactively applied from January 1, 2025—and will further reduce to 10% from 2026 onwards. Notably, this 10% share will now be extended through 2045, adding a decade to the agreement’s duration but on more favorable terms for London Stock Exchange Group PLC.

To secure these revised terms, London Stock Exchange Group PLC is committing £1.15 billion in cash, payable in two tranches: £900 million in 2025 and £250 million in 2026. These payments will be recognized as intangible assets on the balance sheet and amortized as non-underlying items. An additional contingent payment of up to £200 million is tied to the achievement of certain growth milestones within the Post Trade Solutions business.

The revenue surplus payment for 2024 amounted to approximately €200 million, which was accounted for in LSEG’s cost of sales. The revised terms are expected to be immediately margin-accretive, with management estimating a 2–3% accretion to Adjusted Earnings Per Share (AEPS) in 2025 and further upside in 2026 as synergies compound.

What does the deal signal for institutional confidence in post-trade infrastructure innovation?

The buy-in from 11 major global banks signals broad institutional confidence in the future of centralised post-trade infrastructure—particularly for uncleared bilateral derivatives, which remain a costly and operationally fragmented part of the financial system. Leaders from participating banks were uniformly supportive of the transaction, echoing themes of operational resilience, regulatory alignment, and shared innovation.

Daniel Maguire, Head of Markets at London Stock Exchange Group PLC and CEO of LCH Group, emphasized that the spirit of innovation and risk management that made SwapClear a success remains central to the new partnership. He stated that Post Trade Solutions could drive material improvements in capital, risk, and operational efficiency across the bilateral OTC space.

Jim DeMare, Co-President of Bank of America, said the investment aligns with the bank’s strategy to foster technology-led solutions that enhance operational resilience and facilitate risk mitigation.

Barclays Bank PLC President Stephen Dainton described the move as a natural continuation of efforts to evolve market infrastructure in a way that delivers capital efficiency across the system.

BNP Paribas Deputy COO Olivier Osty reiterated that clearing and post-trade solutions are critical enablers of financial system robustness, adding that this partnership demonstrates the bank’s long-term commitment to the segment.

Similarly, executives from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citi, Nomura, Société Générale, and others highlighted the efficiency gains achieved through prior engagements with LCH and expressed optimism that Post Trade Solutions could replicate that model in new areas.

How are investors reacting to the transaction and what are the valuation drivers?

The deal is likely to be viewed positively by institutional investors and market analysts for several reasons. First, the £170 million capital inflow and £1.15 billion SwapClear restructuring payment reinforce London Stock Exchange Group PLC’s ability to extract long-term economic value from its market infrastructure assets. Second, the EBITDA margin accretion and AEPS lift in 2025 signal disciplined capital deployment.

Importantly, the move also provides a tangible monetization event for Post Trade Solutions, offering a hard valuation benchmark of £850 million on a revenue base of just £96 million. That equates to an enterprise multiple of nearly 9x revenue and 53x EBITDA, reflecting market confidence in the future growth potential of the segment—particularly in light of upcoming Basel III finalization and further OTC derivatives reform.

With the restructuring of revenue sharing in SwapClear, London Stock Exchange Group PLC stands to improve earnings quality over a longer-term horizon, reducing structural leakage to external stakeholders and instead capturing a higher share of its clearing platform’s success.

From a governance standpoint, the inclusion of banking shareholders also adds stickiness to the client base and could act as a barrier to entry for emerging competitors in post-trade processing.

What are analysts watching as LSEG integrates these changes through 2025?

Analysts are likely to focus on the pace of platform adoption within Post Trade Solutions following the transaction, as well as margin expansion potential across LSEG’s broader Markets division. Investor scrutiny may also center around the integration performance of component businesses like Acadia and Quantile, and whether the group can deliver scalable technology efficiencies across disparate platforms.

There will also be close monitoring of the £200 million contingent payout mechanism—whether the performance thresholds are tied to revenue, client onboarding, or product adoption could materially affect the long-term payout profile.

For now, institutional sentiment remains constructive. The backing of 11 global banks—most of which are SwapClear veterans—suggests strategic alignment rather than opportunistic arbitrage. For investors, this deal marks a reaffirmation of London Stock Exchange Group PLC’s ability to not only build infrastructure, but monetize it through collaborative models that align incentives and deepen market integration.

The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of this year.

Key takeaways from LSEG’s Post Trade Solutions transaction and SwapClear revenue restructuring

• London Stock Exchange Group PLC has sold a 20% stake in Post Trade Solutions to 11 global banks for £170 million, valuing the unit at £850 million.
• The SwapClear revenue share for banks will drop from 30% to 15% in 2025 and 10% from 2026, extended through 2045.
• LSEG will pay £1.15 billion to restructure the SwapClear arrangement, with a possible £200 million performance-based add-on.
• The deal is 2–3% accretive to Adjusted EPS in 2025 and is expected to enhance EBITDA margins for the Markets division.
• Analysts view the transaction as a governance-aligned monetization model with high entry barriers for competitors.