Lance Uggla has spent the past 13 years building Markit into one of the pre-eminent providers of financial data. Now, amid increasing competition from exchange groups on his patch, he is speeding into new territory.

London-headquartered Markit, which began life in a St Albans barn and is now a $5.2 billion firm listed on Nasdaq, on March 21 announced a $13 billion merger of equals with the Colorado-based data group IHS, which provides data on sectors including aerospace, defence, security and energy to over 50,000 companies. The combined group will be known as IHS Markit.