Experian (LON:EXPN), the global information services company, today issued an update on trading for the three months ended 31 December 2019.
Commenting on the performance, Brian Cassin, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“We delivered another quarter of good growth as we execute on our strategy of innovation-led growth. Total revenue growth in Q3 was 9% and organic revenue growth was 7%, both at constant exchange rates. At actual exchange rates total growth was 7%. Overall the performance was in line with our expectations and our guidance for the full year is unchanged.”
% change in revenue from ongoing activities year-on-year for the three months ended 31 December 2019
| Ongoing activities only | Total revenue growth % At actual exchange rates1 | Total revenue growth % At constant exchange rates | Organic revenue growth % At constant exchange rates |
| North America | 11 | 11 | 10 |
| Latin America | 10 | 19 | 18 |
| UK and Ireland | (3) | (3) | (3) |
| EMEA/Asia Pacific | (4) | (1) | (13) |
| Experian | 7 | 9 | 7 |
1 Experian reports in US dollars.
% change in organic revenue year-on-year for the three months ended 31 December 2019
| Organic revenue growth1 | Data | Decisioning | B2B2 | Consumer Services | Experian |
| North America | 12 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 10 |
| Latin America | 17 | 25 | 18 | n/a | 18 |
| UK and Ireland | 1 | (12) | (4) | 1 | (3) |
| EMEA/Asia Pacific | 10 | (29) | (13) | n/a | (13) |
| Experian | 12 | (3) | 7 | 6 | 7 |
1 Ongoing activities only, at constant exchange rates.
2 B2B = Business-to-Business segment consists of Data and Decisioning business sub-divisions.
North America
We delivered strong growth in North America, where organic revenue increased by 10%, notwithstanding the effect of one-off third-party breach support revenue in the prior year. Total revenue growth was 11%, reflecting acquisition contributions from AllClear ID, MyHealthDirect and AutoID.
B2B performed well with organic growth of 11%. In Data, there was growth across all core areas of activity, reflecting strength in credit data volumes, mortgage and contributions from new products. There was further progress in the roll-out of Ascend, as we launched the new Ascend Data Services module, and we continue to secure significant synergies from non-traditional credit data assets (Clarity Services). Decisioning also performed well, reflecting strength in fraud and identity management volumes, and there was further strong progress in health.
Consumer Services performed well, with organic revenue up 7%, even as we lapped one-off data breach support revenue in the prior year comparable. Experian Boost has continued to perform very well, and we have further expanded our free membership base. We now have c. 27m US consumers on our free membership platform, and 2.4 million US consumers have connected their accounts to Experian Boost. This has led to growth across our direct-to-consumer ecosystem, including triple-digit growth in CreditMatch, our credit comparison offer.
Latin America
Latin America had a particularly strong quarter, with organic revenue growth of 18% at constant exchange rates, including a stand-out performance in Brazil. Total revenue growth at constant exchange rate was 19%, reflecting the first-time contribution from the acquisition of Sentinel Peru. Organic growth in Brazil reflected excellent performances across the business, including growth in consumer information, business information and Decisioning. We also saw a strong contribution from our consumer activities, following a highly successful credit fair for Limpa Nome, our debt resolution service, and as we secure further traction for online credit comparison services through our eCred offer. We now have 42 million free consumer memberships in Brazil. There was also further progress in Spanish Latin America, with another good performance in Colombia.
We remain on track for the introduction of positive data in Brazil and expect commercial offers including positive data to be available from the end of this month.
UK and Ireland
In the UK and Ireland, both total and organic revenue declined (3)% at constant exchange rates.
Organic revenue for Data grew by 1%, as growth in consumer and business information offset weakness in targeting and automotive. We continue to make encouraging progress in digital services, including strength in eligibility services, and we see good prospects for our newer propositions, including trended data, as well as for affordability services through our open-data platforms. Decisioning was weak with an organic revenue decline of (12)% as we continue to experience longer sales cycles and deferral of decision-making by clients for large software implementations and data quality services. Combined, this led to a (4)% decline in organic revenue for B2B overall.
Consumer Services delivered organic revenue growth of 1%. Free memberships reached 7 million, contributing to very strong growth in CreditMatcher, our comparison service, which offset ongoing decline in legacy credit monitoring subscription revenue.
EMEA/Asia Pacific
At constant exchange rates, total revenue across EMEA/Asia Pacific declined by (1)%, while organic revenue declined by (13)%. The difference related to the contribution from the acquisition of Compuscan and other smaller acquisitions. Data performed strongly, with organic revenue growth of 10%, driven by strength in India, Southeast Asia and the Nordics. This was offset by a decline in Decisioning, with organic revenue down (29)% as we lapped strong prior comparables and due to some phasing of contract wins between quarters. Across EMEA/Asia Pacific, we’ve seen growing pipelines for affordability, decisioning software and marketplace offers and we expect a return to growth in Q4 FY20.
Future events
Experian will release results for the year ending 31 March 2020 on Wednesday 20 May 2020.
