LSEG Agrees to Buy Credit-Data Firm Octus for $3.5 Billion in Its Biggest Deal Since Refinitiv

The London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire Octus, a credit-intelligence provider, from funds advised by private equity firm Permira and Octus management for $3.535 billion in cash. The deal was announced on 22 October and is expected to close in the first half of 2027.

Octus supplies data and analysis on companies in financial distress to banks, law firms and investors. It will join LSEG's Data & Analytics division, and founder Kent Collier will keep running it. LSEG will fund the purchase with external debt, expects leverage near the upper end of its 1.5-2.5x target range at the end of 2027, and sees the deal as neutral to adjusted EPS in the first full year.

It is LSEG's largest acquisition since Refinitiv in 2019. The deal comes as AI reshapes how investors and businesses use financial data, and as activist investor Elliott presses the exchange operator.