London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Thursday announced that the proposed acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Frank Russell Company (Russell) from Northwestern Mutual and other minority shareholders of Russell for total cash of 2.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Boosted by the announcement, LSEG's share price closed at 19.84 pounds per share Thursday, 6.10 percent higher than that of the previous trading day.

The LSEG's board believes that the acquisition is a rare opportunity to acquire high quality U.S. business with a leading global providing index and investment management services, said LSEG in a statement.

The purchase will help LSEG expand its index and exchange-traded fund (ETF) businesses, said the group.

The acquisition brings together 5.2 trillion of assets benchmarked to Russell and an estimated 4.0 trillion of equity benchmark to FTSE, noted LSEG.

LSEG acquired 50 percent stake of FTSE International, a global indexing and analytic solution provider, if did not own from Pearson plc in December 2011. And it confirmed in May that it was interested in acquiring Russell.

Xavier Rolet, chief executive at LSEG, commented:" (The acquisition) sits squarely with our diversification strategy, builds on one of our core strengths in intellectual property and provides another key driver of growth by growing our presence in the U.S., the largest global financial services market."

Len Brennan, president and chief executive officer of Russell, said:" The combination of our index business with FTSE creates a truly global index leader, with a highly complementary fit of products and distribution capabilities and a unique position as a leader in major domestic market benchmarks as well as international equities."

Russell, which was funded in 1936 and is based in Seattle, owns an index division that operates equity benchmark gauges such as the Russell 2000 Index and an investment management arm with asset under management (AUM) of 256 billion dollars.