Analyst Note
| Niklas Kammer |Wide-moat London Stock Exchange Group posted a good trading update with total income growing 7.5% to GBP 2,007 million roughly in line with GBP 1,980 million consensus estimate collected by the exchange group prior to the release. Continued good performance in the data and analytics segment (up 7.8% excluding Russia/Ukraine impact) and strong growth in posttrade (up 16.8%) on heightened market volatility in the quarter are noteworthy. The trading and banking solutions, respectively growing 2.6% and 3.1% organically, have now firmly established a growth trajectory. The supposedly bleak outlook of these business units has been one major argument brought forward by bears on LSEG for why the Refinitiv deal was ill-advised. We have continuously highlighted that although the transformation toward growth will not happen overnight, we believe that LSEG is well positioned to compete effectively in trading and banking. As LSEG continues to execute on its strategy, we see arguments justifying the discrepancy between LSEG's share price and our fair value estimate of GBX 9,800 per share dwindling. Shares remain undervalued. Our fair value estimate remains unchanged.