LONDON, March 12, 2026, 15:01 GMT
Shares in London Stock Exchange Group jumped roughly 3% Thursday afternoon, after the company’s annual report revealed Chief Executive David Schwimmer is set for 6.4 million pounds in pay for 2025. The stock was trading near 8,676 pence, making gains in a London market that saw the FTSE 100 slip 0.5%.
LSEG’s disclosure arrives at a tricky moment. Schwimmer faces the dual task of repairing investor confidence after the AI-led selloff and handling Elliott Management’s scrutiny. Shares have underperformed rivals—a 22.6% slide over the past year. Intercontinental Exchange slipped 5.5%, Deutsche Boerse dropped 8.35%. Euronext, on the other hand, rose 11.23%.
The 2025 pay number stacks up against the 7.864 million pounds reported for 2024 in LSEG’s last annual filing. According to Financial News on Thursday, which cited the just-released report, the total payout hit 68% of the potential maximum, while the shareholder-return component—tied to stock performance versus peers—delivered nothing.
LSEG keeps steering the spotlight to its core operations. “We have achieved another year of very strong financial performance,” Schwimmer said in February, pointing to “very positive signs of adoption” with the group’s AI-ready data initiative. LSEG
The company reported a 7.1% gain in underlying income excluding recoveries for 2025, with adjusted EBITDA up 11.8% and adjusted earnings per share reaching 420.6 pence. It’s also planning another 3 billion pounds in buybacks by February 2027. For 2026, management is targeting margin expansion in the range of 80 to 100 basis points, or 0.8 to 1.0 percentage point.
Schwimmer pushed back on the notion that AI could just sidestep LSEG’s role in the value chain. Speaking to reporters on Feb. 26, he called it “verging on impossible” for AI models to reconstruct the group’s proprietary datasets. He also indicated that more AI partnerships are on the way this year and after. Reuters
But investors aren’t convinced just yet. Last month, Reuters said Elliott is pushing for improved margins, more transparency about the Microsoft tie-up’s impact, and a stronger response to concerns that AI could turn LSEG’s data business into a commodity. Some shareholders added that while major asset sales could give the shares a short-term bump, they might undercut the group’s future prospects.
Analysts, it seems, are still backing LSEG more strongly than its stock price indicates. According to MarketScreener, 17 analysts rate the shares a buy, pegging the average target at 122.32 pounds—roughly 45% higher than where the stock ended Wednesday, at 84.24 pounds.
