It has been revealed that the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is in talks to acquire US financial data firm Octus for approximately $3.5 billion. Behind this move is a strategic intent to acquire proprietary data in rapidly growing sectors such as private markets and credit information, further accelerating the growth of its core data and analytics business.

Key Points of LSEG’s Acquisition Talks for Octus

On October 13, 2026, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced that it is in talks with private equity (PE) firm Permira regarding the acquisition of U.S. financial data company Octus. The proposed acquisition price is reportedly around $3.5 billion (approximately 500 billion yen). Although a final agreement has not been reached at this stage and the completion of the deal is not guaranteed, market interest is extremely high.

LSEG expects that if the acquisition of Octus is completed, it will immediately contribute to the revenue growth of its core Data & Analytics division and the group as a whole. Octus was highly evaluated for establishing a subscription-based business model boasting a high customer retention rate and for continuing stable double-digit growth.

Please refer to the figure below.

Meanwhile, in the stock market following reports of the acquisition talks, LSEG’s share price was also observed dropping temporarily by 4.7 percent amid concerns over share dilution risks and regulatory scrutiny. Approval from UK regulatory authorities, such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is essential for the execution of the acquisition.

A .5 Billion Valuation and Permira’s Investment Returns

In August 2022, Permira acquired a controlling stake in Octus (then known as Reorg) from investment fund Warburg Pincus. At the time, the valuation was approximately $1.3 billion, meaning that if the reported sale at roughly $3.5 billion goes through, Permira will have more than 2.5xed the value of its investment in about four years.

Octas’ financial performance is extremely robust, with its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for 2026 projected at approximately $145 million, and estimated to increase to about $200 million the following year, 2027. Valuation multiples in the M&A market for financial data companies are generally considered to be around 12x to 14x on an enterprise value-to-sales (EV/Sales) basis, meaning that the current terms also reflect prevailing market standards.

Kent Collier, founder and CEO of Octus, also still holds a minority stake. As a private equity exit strategy through a stock sale, this deal has also made a significant impact within the industry.

Oktas’s Business Model and Competitive Advantage in Credit Information

Expansion from distress-risk companies to the entire credit market

Octus was founded in 2013 by current CEO Kent Collier. Initially a startup providing analytical information on distressed debt specializing in struggling companies and bankruptcy proceedings, it subsequently evolved into a comprehensive platform covering leveraged finance and private credit in general. In 2022, it acquired LendAmend and FinDox, accelerating the strengthening of its data infrastructure.

Currently, the company has acquired over 44,000 paid subscribers worldwide and has earned the absolute trust of practitioners in investment banking, institutional investors, law firms, and buy-side companies. Over the past 9 years, the company’s database has accumulated more than 11 million transaction documents, covering 28,000 issuers and amounting to over 63,000 transaction deals.

With over 300 expert analysts, journalists, and legal professionals on staff, it has established a system to issue more than 50,000 high-quality credit reports annually.

Workflow Integration with Generative AI “CreditAI”

Another core supporting Octus’s competitiveness is “CreditAI by Octus,” which fuses advanced technology with human expertise. The company integrates its proprietary agentic generative AI atop vast amounts of leveraged finance materials and legal data to provide solutions that accelerate complex contract analysis and risk assessment.

This AI feature is trained by professional financial analysts and legal experts, and is characterized by achieving high-precision output while preventing the generation of misinformation. Investment banking leveraged finance professionals, CLO managers, and restructuring specialists utilize the company’s workflow tools as indispensable infrastructure in their daily decision-making processes.

By providing these proprietary tools and high-precision data, high customer retention rates that prevent customer churn are achieved, realizing continuous revenue growth. Please refer to the figure below.

LSEG’s Strategic Objectives and Trends in the Financial Data Market

Expansion of Private Market Data and Product Cross-Selling

LSEG completed its $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv in 2021, establishing a global position in the financial data and analytics sector. Since then, it has continued to revamp its products through strategic partnerships such as with Microsoft, but further strengthening was required in private market data, such as rapidly expanding private credit.

By bringing Octus under its umbrella, LSEG will be able to mutually integrate it with its existing fixed-income analytics tool “Yield Book” and electronic trading platform “Tradeweb,” creating powerful cross-selling opportunities for a wide range of financial institutions.

Furthermore, activist investor Elliott Management disclosed a stake acquisition in LSEG in February 2026, demanding improved shareholder value and further growth for the data business. The acquisition of Octus serves as a strategic move to respond to pressure from this investor and incorporate high-margin proprietary content.

Waves of Industry Restructuring and Key Focus Points in Regulatory Reviews

Currently, M&A activity aimed at acquiring highly unique data assets is intensifying globally in the financial data industry. Moves toward a sale are also spreading among competitors—such as YipitData, backed by the Carlyle Group, and Allvue, backed by Vista Equity—fostering a growing mood of market-wide consolidation.

The future focus will be on review procedures by authorities such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In the 2026 UK M&A environment, reviews of the digital and data sectors by competition authorities are becoming more cautious, and the risk of prolonged investigations must also be taken into consideration. In addition, regulatory compliance with the National Security and Investment Act (NSI Act) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will also be important.

Along with whether the transaction will officially reach an agreement, whether it will receive approval from competition authorities, and whether post-acquisition platform integration will proceed as planned are the biggest focal points in the market going forward.

Reference page

• 【Response to Press Speculation – London Stock Exchange Group plc】https://www.lseg.com/en/media-centre/press-releases/2026/lseg-response-to-press-speculation-octus-acquisition
• 【The leading voice in credit intelligence, data and workflow – Octus】https://octus.com/company/about-us/

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