The London Stock Exchange Group's $3.54 billion deal for the credit data provider will be funded with debt and push leverage to the top of its target range. Octus expects more than $300 million of revenue this year at a margin near 40%.
LSEG's release on its acquisition of Octus spelled out who is selling, how big the business is and how the deal will be paid for.
The sellers are funds advised by Permira and Octus management, including founder Kent Collier, according to LSEG. Collier will continue to run Octus inside LSEG's Data & Analytics division. The price is about $3.54 billion.
Octus expects revenue of more than $300 million in 2026, growing at a strong double-digit rate, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 40%. It has 750 customers and more than 40,000 users.
What LSEG is paying
Based on those figures, and treating the $3.54 billion as the full price for the business, the price works out to at most about 11.8 times 2026 revenue. The companies have not said whether that figure includes debt. At a 40% margin, adjusted EBITDA would be roughly $120 million or more, which implies a multiple of up to about 29.5 times. Because revenue is described as "over" $300 million, those multiples are upper bounds, and LSEG did not disclose them.
That is a full price, and it suggests what buyers will pay for data businesses tied to credit markets, which have grown alongside private credit.
How it is funded
LSEG is paying with external debt. It expects leverage to be around the upper end of its 1.5 to 2.5 times range at the end of 2027. The deal is expected to be neutral to adjusted earnings per share in its first full year and accretive afterward. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Strategy versus price
The strategic reading is that LSEG is buying a fast-growing source of credit data that gives it a stronger position in public and private credit.
The financial reading is more cautious: a multiple of up to about 29.5 times EBITDA, funded with debt, needs sustained growth to earn its cost of capital, and leaves less room in LSEG's leverage target for other moves.
What to watch
Regulatory approval and closing in the first half of 2027, Octus's revenue growth against the "strong double-digit" claim, and LSEG's leverage path.