Business Oct 23, 2026

LSEG Agrees to Buy Octus for $3.535 Billion to Expand…

London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire Octus for $3.535 billion in cash, expanding its credit intelligence and data services across public, private, illiquid and distressed debt. Octus is being sold by funds advised by Permira and its management, including founder Kent Collier. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

LSEG plans to combine Octus’s credit research, proprietary data and workflow tools with its existing fixed-income data, analytics and distribution. The group said the combined products could help customers source deals, assess risk and manage portfolios across a credit market that is increasingly divided between liquid public debt and less liquid private lending.

What Octus Adds

Founded in 2013, Octus provides intelligence, data and analytics for private, illiquid and distressed credit. It collects hard-to-access loan documentation, including covenants and deal terms, and turns it into structured, searchable information. The data is connected to workflow and portfolio management tools used by buy-side firms, investment banks, law firms and advisory businesses.

Octus has more than 900 employees, about 750 customers and over 40,000 individual users, according to LSEG. The company is expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue during 2026, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of around 40%. LSEG said Octus has delivered double-digit compound revenue growth since 2022. These figures are estimates provided by the buyer and reflect the financial profile presented in its transaction announcement.

LSEG already serves fixed-income markets through products including IFR news, evaluated pricing, corporate actions, Yield Book analytics and LPC loan data. It has a strong position in liquid credit, while Octus brings expertise in private and distressed credit. LSEG expects the acquisition to give it a broader data and workflow offering across the credit lifecycle.

Private Credit’s Growth and Data Gap

Private credit has expanded as companies and investors seek financing outside traditional public bond markets and bank lending. LSEG estimates the asset class at $3.5 trillion and says the market for private-market data, workflow and access solutions is valued at $7 billion to $9 billion, with double-digit growth expected. These are management estimates rather than independently verified transaction statistics.

Private loans are generally negotiated between borrowers and lenders and are not traded as frequently as public bonds. Investors may need to assess bespoke covenants, borrower financials, collateral and amendment history. That can make data harder to standardise and compare. A provider able to organise loan documentation and connect it with portfolio tools may help investors monitor exposures, though the quality of analysis depends on source coverage and the timeliness of updates.

Public and private credit markets are also becoming more connected through investment firms that operate across both. Investors may compare relative value between syndicated loans, high-yield bonds and private loans, while banks arrange or finance transactions that involve non-bank lenders. LSEG’s strategy is to offer a common workflow and data structure across segments that currently differ in transparency and liquidity.

Integration and Cross-Selling Plans

LSEG said it intends to sell Octus products through its global distribution network and offer its own products to Octus customers, particularly hedge funds and alternative investment managers. It plans to combine Octus content with Workspace, LPC, Yield Book, PRS and Tradeweb to support a more consistent view of credit markets, including valuation and portfolio management tools.

Octus will become part of LSEG’s Data & Analytics division after completion. Kent Collier is expected to continue running the Octus business, reporting to the division’s co-heads, Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts. LSEG Chief Executive David Schwimmer said the deal would broaden its credit data and workflow offering across the liquidity spectrum. Collier said the combination would pair Octus’s data and intelligence with LSEG’s distribution and fixed-income capabilities.

The integration will be important to the deal’s value. Customers may use overlapping systems, and combining datasets requires consistent identifiers, licensing terms, interface design and data governance. LSEG has not published a detailed integration plan or quantified cost synergies. Its announcement focuses on revenue opportunities from selling products across the combined customer base and developing new offerings.

Financial Impact and Funding

LSEG expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to organic revenue growth in Data & Analytics and additive to its 2027 group subscription revenue growth guidance of around 7%. The company expects the deal to be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after completion and accretive thereafter. It said there is no change to its medium-term underlying EBITDA margin guidance.

The purchase will be financed with external debt. LSEG expects leverage to reach the upper end of its 1.5 to 2.5 times target range by the end of 2027, before returning to the middle of that range by the end of 2028. Its calculation includes forecast cash flow, the planned completion of a £3 billion share buyback by February 2027, and the Octus and Trumid acquisitions. Tradeweb, in which LSEG has a majority stake, announced its planned acquisition of credit trading platform Trumid earlier in the week.

Regulatory Review and Market Position

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval. LSEG did not name the relevant authorities or set out a review timetable beyond an expected first-half 2027 close. The acquisition would add to a period of consolidation in financial market data and trading, as providers seek to build broader platforms for fixed income and private markets.