London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire New York-based credit intelligence provider Octus for $3.535 billion in cash, expanding its presence in private, illiquid and distressed debt markets. The debt-financed transaction, announced on October 22, is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Octus is being sold by funds advised by private equity firm Permira and by management, including founder Kent Collier.
Octus, formerly known as Reorg, was founded in 2013. It provides proprietary intelligence, financial data and portfolio management tools covering private, illiquid and distressed credit. The company employs more than 900 people and serves approximately 750 institutional customers and over 40,000 individual users. LSEG expects Octus to generate more than $300 million in revenue during 2026, with double-digit growth and an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40%. Based on that revenue figure, the purchase price represents roughly 12 times expected 2026 revenue.
LSEG estimates the private credit industry at approximately $3.5 trillion, while the addressable market for private-market data, workflows and access solutions stands at $7 billion to $9 billion. The acquisition is intended to strengthen LSEG's fixed-income business by adding specialist information on credit assets that trade infrequently and often lack transparent market pricing. Octus content will be integrated into LSEG's Workspace and other data products, allowing investors to evaluate public and private credit exposures through more consistent analytical tools.
The deal complements Tradeweb's recently announced agreement to acquire credit trading platform Trumid for about $1.97 billion. LSEG controls Tradeweb, and the two transactions address different parts of the credit investment process: proprietary information and electronic execution. LSEG said Octus will become part of its Data & Analytics division, with Kent Collier continuing to run the business and reporting to division co-heads Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts.
On financial impact, LSEG expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to organic revenue growth in Data & Analytics and additive to its 2027 group subscription revenue growth guidance of around 7%. The deal is expected to be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after completion and accretive thereafter. External debt financing will increase leverage, with LSEG expecting its net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio to approach the upper end of its 1.5-to-2.5 times target range by the end of 2027 before returning toward the midpoint in 2028. LSEG also reported third-quarter organic income growth of 8.8%, including 5.2% growth in Data & Analytics, and raised its full-year income growth forecast to at least 8%.
