EU peer read-thrus – RTO vs. ROL (& ECL); VSURE vs. ADT; LSEG vs. FDS (& FinInfo)

Research evidence excerpt

EU peer read-thrus – RTO vs. ROL (& ECL); VSURE vs. ADT; LSEG vs. FDS (& FinInfo)

Barclays | BIPS of Info

• For FDS/Market data: With that said LSEG shares traded down (6.4)% and FDS was down

(6.7)% too (on 7/30 vs. the SPX +1.7%) - and while broader market positioning likely

dominated the flows; investors remain skeptical on the net winner prospects of these

names in an AI world. For FDS, the LSEG read-through is mixed but ultimately helps the AI/

data-feed narrative (+7.5% for LSEG) more than it hurts the workstation debate.

° On the negative side, LSEG Workflows grew only 2.8% (similar to SPGI's MI Platforms and

MORN's Direct licenses were down modestly too), which reinforces that the traditional

desktop/seat market is mature and investor concerns around headcount and terminal

usage will not disappear.

° On the positive side, the more important incremental point is that LSEG Data & Feeds grew

7.5%, MCP customers reached 202, Workspace AI Search already has 17k active users, Deep

Research has 7k users, API consumption continues to accelerate, and management

highlighted strong demand for data delivery through Snowflake, Databricks and other

enterprise environments. This lines up very closely with FactSet’s strategy around

enterprise content, MCP distribution and AI-driven data consumption. In many ways,

LSEG’s early MCP adoption metrics and emerging pricing framework validate what FDS has

been arguing for several quarters: the growth opportunity increasingly sits in data feeds,

consumption layers and AI-enabled workflows rather than the traditional workstation itself

• For MSCI: The read-through is mostly positive, though not all clean. LSEG's FTSE Russell

growth of 9.1% organically, with asset-based revenues up 15% and 52 new ETFs launched, up