LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) -

A consortium of investors in London Stock Exchange Group ( LDNXF )

sold about 1.9 billion pounds ($2.41 billion) of shares

in the London bourse owner, as it looks to cash in on rising

interest in LSEG's transition into a financial data powerhouse.

The consortium, which includes private equity firm

Blackstone, Thomson Reuters ( TRI ) and other investors,

"executed a monetisation" of about 21.5 million shares in LSEG.

Institutional investors purchased around 15.9 million shares

at 8,980 pence per share, reflecting a discount of around 0.7%

to Tuesday's closing price.

LSEG said it agreed to buy back around 5.6 million voting

and limited-voting ordinary shares from the consortium in a 500

million pounds off-market transaction.

The company paid 8,917 pence per share. LSEG has said it

expected to execute up to 1 billion pounds of share buybacks

during 2024.

LSEG shares were trading 2.8% higher at 0813 GMT.

Data now represents 70% of turnover at LSEG, which

posted total 2023 income, excluding recoveries, of 8 billion

pounds, up 7.8% and at the higher end of a 6-8% forecast on Feb.

29.

LSEG bought Refinitiv for $27 billion from Blackstone

three years ago. Thomson Reuters ( TRI ), which owns Reuters News, has a

minority shareholding in LSEG after the Refinitiv deal. LSEG

also pays Reuters for news.

At a capital markets day in November, LSEG raised its

mid-term growth guidance to "mid to high single digits" as it

looks beyond the integration of Refinitiv to the benefits of its

$2 billion tie-up with Microsoft ( MSFT ).

($1 = 0.7868 pounds)