A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett
(Reuters) – London Stock Exchange Group, which is in talks to merge with Deutsche Boerse to create a pan-European trading house, reported a 31 percent rise in full-year adjusted pre-tax profit on Friday.
The company, which owns Borsa Italiana and the London Stock Exchange, said discussions with Deutsche Boerse were ongoing over a potential merger which would create substantial revenue and cost benefits.
LSE and Deutsche Boerse said last week they were in merger talks, although New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange has raised the prospect of a bidding war by saying it is considering making a counter-offer.
Adjusted pre-tax profit rose to 643.4 million pounds ($910.80 million) from 491.7 million pounds a year earlier.
Revenue rose 78 percent to 2.28 billion pounds. Revenue includes both continuing and discontinued operations and excludes unrealised gains and losses for 2014 at LCH.Clearnet.
Analysts had forecast on average full-year pre-tax profit of 589.01 million pounds. Revenue fell short of forecasts for 2.396 billion pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company proposed a higher final dividend of 25.2 pence per share, implying a 20 percent increase in the dividend for 2015.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith and Jane Merriman)