Thomson Reuters is a company built – as chief executive Tom Glocer put it on Tuesday – on the idea of “selling digital content and software on a recurring subscription basis to professionals around the world”. Consistent, reliable, global. In that context, the persistence of a yawning gap between the group’s North American and London-listed shares is embarrassing.

The 18 per cent discount at which the London listing trades to the US and Canadian listings is an operational irrelevance. Mr Glocer – without referring to it on Tuesday’s results call – probably helped narrow the gulf by announcing a better-than-expected fourth quarter for the markets division. If UK-based investors were expecting the financial data operations to take a heavy hit from the financial crisis (as they did when markets turned down earlier this decade), the division’s resilience should improve sentiment towards the London shares. Familiarity with the more stable Thomson businesses and satisfaction with the improved savings from integrating the two companies are only increasing.