London Stock Exchange on track to close Refinitiv deal as income jumps

Feb 28 - The London Stock Exchange Group said on Friday it would complete its $27 billion takeover of analytics company Refinitiv on time this year as it reported higher-than-expected annual income, driven a jump in clearing activity.

"We remain on track to close the (Refinitiv) transaction in the second half of this year," said David Schwimmer, the former Goldman Sachs veteran who took over the reins at the LSE in 2018.

The exchange said total income from continuing operations rose 8% to 2.314 billion pounds ($3.01 billion) in the year ended Dec. 31.

Analysts had expected total income of 2.308 billion pounds according to company supplied estimates from 13 analysts.

Refinitiv is 45%-owned by Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters News.

($1 = 0.7696 pounds) (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Huw Jones)