Exclusive: LSE offers rivals access to data, clearing in EU pledge – sources

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – London Stock Exchange has offered to allow rivals non-discriminatory access to clearing and data in a bid to win over antitrust regulators investigating its $27 billion bid for data provider Refinitiv, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The pledge is part of a package submitted to the European Commission earlier on Thursday, which also included the sale of its Borsa Italiana operations to pan-European exchange Euronext .

The EU competition enforcer is concerned that creating a more vertically integrated company that combines the origination and distribution of data, and strengthening areas like clearing would make it easy to lock out competitors or to keep prices for data too high, the people said.

Concessions to address these vertical concerns are typically licensing access remedies, they said. Refinitiv is 45% owned by Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Huw Jones in London; Editing by Jon Boyle)