By Ian Walker 



  London Stock Exchange Group PLC said Friday that it is in exploratory talks to sell its interest in MTS SpA or potentially the Borsa Italiana as a whole, in order to satisfy the European Commission on its deal to acquire Refinitiv. 


  The exchange operator agreed to buy financial-data provider Refinitiv last August for $27 billion, and the Commission launched a Phase II review into the deal last month. At that time, the LSEG said it continued to engage constructively with the Commission. 


  LSEG said Friday that there is no certainty any deal will proceed, but that it expects to close the Refinitiv acquisition either by the end of this year, or early 2021. 


  Separately, the London Stock Exchange reported a pretax profit of 362 million pounds ($474 million) for the half year ended June 30, compared with GBP363 million for the same period last year. 


  Total revenue rose to GBP1.06 billion, from GBP1.02 billion. 


  Adjusted operating profit--one of the company's preferred metrics, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--was GBP575 million, compared with GBP533 million the year prior and a GBP569 million estimate taken from FactSet and based on three analysts' forecasts. Net profit was GBP226 million, compared with GBP246 million. 


  The board declared an interim dividend of 23.3 pence a share, up from 20.1 pence for the first half of 2019, reflecting its strong financial position and confidence in future prospects. 


  Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com