LSE Group lifts operating profit 47 percent

London Stock Exchange Group reported a 47 percent rise in full-year operating profit on Friday as its clearing house LCH posted record volumes across multiple clearing services and company flotations hit a three-year high.

LSE said operating profit for last year rose to 626 million pounds, while total income rose 18 percent to 1.96 billion pounds.

Total income was forecast at 1.94 billion pounds, according to company compiled estimates from 14 analysts.

"We have delivered another year of strong performance with growth across all of our core businesses," said David Warren, CFO and Interim Group Chief Executive.

LSE said it had made "good progress" in its search of a new CEO with a "strong field of high quality candidates".

Xavier Rolet stepped down as CEO in November, a year earlier than planned, and an attempt by hedge fund shareholder TCI to fire LSE Chairman Donald Brydon over his handling of the departure was thrown out in a shareholder vote.

LSE said operating profit at its information services business, which includes the FTSE index business, rose 14 percent to 383 million pounds.

LSE raised 15 billion pounds from 106 initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2017, a 63 percent increase compared to last year and the highest level for three years.

Its clearing house LCH saw operating profit rise 58 percent to 194 million pounds.

LCH, majority owned by LSE, reported record volumes across multiple clearing services in 2017 as the exchange fights to keep some of its euro-denominated clearing services within London after Britain leaves the European Union.

"We believe that investors should value LSE's exposure to structural growth drivers such as mandatory central clearing and demand for benchmarks, analytics and data solutions," RBC analysts, who rate LSE as "outperform", said.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Janet Lawrence)