12:00PM New York-LSE, the operator of London Stock Exchange, reported net income in the year ending March 31st rose 59% to £178.2 million from £110 million a year ago

Annual Earnings Review

LSE reported that annual revenue in the year ended March 31st increased 56% year-on-year to £546.4 million from £349.6 million a year earlier as the launch of TradElect helped lift trading volumes by more than 80% during the year.

For the year, net income rose 59% to 59% to £178.2 million from £110 million a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share increased 30% on the year to 73.1 pence per share from 50.5 pence per share.

Operating profit in the period advanced 52% year-on-year to £265.2 million, while profit before tax gained from £165.5 million to £234.7 million.

Also the company reported that total dividend for the year increased 33% to 24 pence per share.

Business Review

Issuer Services

Revenue for the combined Issuer Services, which comprises the primary market operations of London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana, rose 30% to £82.4 million from£63.2 million a year earlier, and gained 6% to £97.1 million on a pro forma basis.

Activity levels were especially lower in the final quarter due to the uncertainty that was precipitated by global market crunch.

There were 378 new issues during the year, with new issues on the Main Market rising from 106 last year to 110, while new issues was flat at 262 on AIM, but below 395 in 2007.
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Also there was a total of 3,824 further issues, including 494 on the Main Market, and 3,330 on AIM.

On the overall, the total money that was raised on the London markets topped £38.1 billion from £53.7 billion in 2007.

During the review period, the Exchange was successful in attracting addition listings as the total number of overseas companies joining the Main Market rose from 35 in a year ago to 39 and those joining AIM eased from 102 a year ago to 83.

About 6 overseas companies joined PSM, the market for debt, convertibles and depositary receipts for professional investors.

In the first two months of the year 8 new companies were added on the Main Market, with listings from Mexico and Czech Republic, and raising over US$4 billion.

It is believed that two of the companies are primary listings and possible entrants in to the FTSE 100 Index.

During the year, the company had 84 international IPOs, which are more than the European and US exchanges combined.

Cumulatively the number of companies on the UK markets at 31 March 2008 was 3,273 from 3,245 in 2007.

In Italy, new equity issues in the year rose from 25 to 33.