Blackstone, Thomson Reuters Selling $3 Billion of London Stock Exchange Group Shares

Swetha Gopinath, Bloomberg News

EDITORS NOTE: Multiple exposures were combined in camera to produce this image. Stock price information displayed in the London Stock Exchange Group Plc's office atrium in the City of London, UK, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. European stocks rose, snapping three days of losses, as US inflation cooled as expected last month and concern eased over wider market repercussions from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- A consortium of investors including Blackstone Inc. and Thomson Reuters Corp. sold £2.7 billion ($3.4 billion) worth of stock in London Stock Exchange Group Plc, two months after their last disposal of the company’s shares.

The group, which also includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, sold 33 million shares at £80.50, according to a filing Wednesday. That’s a discount of about 5% to Tuesday’s close.

The stock on offer represents a 6% stake in the stock exchange.

The placing had attracted enough investor demand for all the shares on offer within minutes of deal launch, according to a term sheet seen by Bloomberg. LSEG’s shares were down 4.5% at 8:39 a.m. in London.

Read More: Blackstone, Thomson Reuters Sell $2.4 Billion of LSEG Shares

Under the lock-up arrangements, Thomson Reuters and Blackstone were able to sell as many as 66.1 million shares in total until Jan. 29, 2024. After this week’s transaction and a previous sale in March, Blackstone and Thomson Reuters will indirectly own about 5.1 million shares, according to Wednesday’s filing.

Those remaining shares will be subject to a 90-day lockup, the terms show.

Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. arranged the share sale.

(Adds share price to fourth paragraph.)