LSEG to Buy Credit Intelligence Provider Octus for $3.535 Billion in Debt-Funded Deal
Oct. 23, 2026 • Article • Companies & Deals
London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire credit intelligence provider Octus for $3.535 billion in cash. LSEG plans to fund the purchase entirely with external debt and expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Octus will join LSEG’s Data & Analytics division, with founder and CEO Kent Collier continuing to lead the business.
The acquisition would add Octus’s private covenant and distressed credit data to LSEG’s debt-market offerings. LSEG plans to connect that information with products including Workspace, LPC and Yield Book, alongside Tradeweb. Octus is projected to generate more than $300 million in 2026 revenue at an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40%. LSEG expects the deal to be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in its first full year after closing and accretive thereafter. It forecasts leverage reaching the upper end of its target range by the end of 2027.
London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire credit intelligence provider Octus for $3.535 billion in cash, a deal that would expand LSEG’s data and analytics business across private and distressed debt markets. LSEG plans to fund the entire purchase with external debt and expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
The acquisition would bring Octus’s specialist credit information into a business that already offers financial data, analytics and access to debt-market workflows. LSEG plans to combine Octus’s private covenant and distressed credit data with several of its existing products, seeking to connect research and analysis across less liquid and more liquid debt markets.
Deal terms and financial outlook
LSEG expects the debt-funded purchase to push its leverage to the upper end of its 1.5–2.5x target range by the end of 2027. It forecasts a return to the midpoint of that range by late 2028. Those figures describe the company’s expected financing position rather than a change to the $3.535 billion cash purchase price.
The group expects the transaction to be neutral to its adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after closing and accretive thereafter. Both projections depend on the acquisition completing and on subsequent business performance. LSEG has not provided a more precise closing date than the first half of 2027.
Octus is projected to generate more than $300 million in revenue in 2026, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40%. Adjusted EBITDA is a measure of operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, adjusted for certain items. The forecast indicates the scale and expected profitability of the business LSEG intends to add, but does not guarantee its results after the acquisition.
The transaction was announced on October 22, 2026, when LSEG also raised its full-year guidance for organic income growth at constant currency to at least 8.0%. That guidance update is separate from the expected contribution of Octus after the deal closes.
Octus and its credit-data business
Founded in 2013 by Kent Collier, Octus was formerly known as Reorg and adopted its current name in late 2024. Permira acquired the business in 2022 at a valuation of approximately $1.3 billion. The earlier valuation provides context for the company’s history, although the available information does not establish whether the two transaction figures are directly comparable.
Octus employs more than 900 people globally. It serves around 750 institutional clients and more than 40,000 individual users across buy-side firms, hedge funds, investment banks and advisory firms. Its focus on private covenant information and distressed credit gives LSEG data aimed at users assessing debt terms and financially troubled borrowers.
Once the deal closes, Octus will become part of LSEG’s Data & Analytics division. Collier will continue to lead the business and will report to the division’s co-heads, Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts. The planned reporting structure retains Octus’s existing leader while placing the company within LSEG’s broader data operation.
Connecting credit data and trading workflows
LSEG plans to bring Octus’s data together with LSEG Workspace, Loan Pricing Corporation, Yield Book and PRS, as well as Tradeweb. The stated aim is an integrated workflow spanning less liquid and liquid debt. For clients, that could mean using Octus’s detailed credit information alongside existing tools for market data and analysis; the extent of any integration will depend on implementation after closing.
The agreement follows a separate announcement by LSEG majority-owned Tradeweb, days earlier, of a roughly $1.75 billion acquisition of corporate bond trading platform Trumid. The two announced deals cover different parts of the credit-market workflow: Octus supplies intelligence and data, while the Tradeweb-Trumid transaction concerns electronic bond trading. The available information does not specify a combined timetable for integrating the two acquisitions.
For now, the principal milestones for LSEG’s Octus deal are regulatory approval and completion. Only after closing would Octus join Data & Analytics and the planned product connections move from acquisition strategy toward delivery.
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London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to acquire credit intelligence provider Octus for $3.535 billion in cash. LSEG plans to fund the purchase entirely with external debt and expects the transaction to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Octus will join LSEG’s Data & Analytics division, with founder and CEO Kent Collier continuing to lead the business. The acquisition would add Octus’s private covenant and distressed credit data to LSEG’s debt-market offerings. LSEG plans to connect that information with products including Workspace, LPC and Yield Book, alongside Tradeweb. Octus is projected to generate more than $300 million in 2026 revenue at an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40%. LSEG expects the deal to be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in its first full year after closing and accretive thereafter. It forecasts leverage reaching the upper end of its target range by the end of 2027.
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