Experian PLC started the year in line with expectations

Experian PLC (LON:EXPN), the global information services company, today issued an update on trading for the three months ended 30 June 2018.

Commenting on the performance, Brian Cassin, Chief Executive Officer, said:

“We have started the year well, in line with our expectations, with Q1 total revenue growth of 10% at constant exchange rates, up 9% at actual rates and organic revenue growth of 8%. Our performance continues to reflect a range of new product introductions across a number of areas, and for the year ahead, at constant currency, our guidance is unchanged.”

% change in revenue from ongoing activities year-on-year for the three months ended 30 June 2018

1 Experian reports in US dollars

% change in organic revenue year-on-year for the three months ended 30 June 2018

1 Ongoing activities only, at constant exchange rates

2 B2B = Business-to-Business segment consists of Data and Decisioning business sub-divisions

North America

In North America, organic revenue growth was up 11%, with B2B up 12% and Consumer Services up 8%. Total revenue growth was 13%, largely reflecting the contribution from the Clarity Services acquisition.

In B2B, growth reflects successful new product introductions, as we add new sources of data, strength in core credit volumes and major One Experian client wins. Experian Ascend secured additional new client wins in the quarter for the analytical sandbox and we continue to evolve and develop the platform to address new customer segments. We have also made further strong progress across decisioning and fraud prevention software, and also in health where we continue to secure new clients, with strong new bookings.

In Consumer Services, we have seen good take-up rates for our new consumer offers and have secured new client wins in partner solutions. In identity protection, we have now enrolled approximately 240,000 paying members, and we introduced additional new features, such as Triple Scan and Child Scan, to engage and expand our membership base. Credit comparison services also made a positive contribution in the quarter as we introduce new offers and enhance the user experience.

Latin America

In Latin America, total and organic revenue growth was 4%, and client demand for analytics, decisioning and fraud software capabilities across the region remains good. Growth in Brazil reflected somewhat weaker macro-economic activity in the quarter, including the effect of recent national industrial action. There was also a reduced contribution from counter-cyclical revenues.

UK and Ireland

In the UK and Ireland, organic revenue growth was 3%, with B2B up 7% and Consumer Services down (8)%. Total revenue growth was 4% reflecting the acquisition of Runpath.

In B2B, we continue to extend our market position, driven by unique Experian capabilities including pre-qualification and new digital services, decisioning software such as PowerCurve and analytics, and we secured multiple new client engagements in the quarter. Consumer Services continues to make good progress, as the rate of decline moderated further with strong growth in CreditMatcher partially offsetting lower credit monitoring revenues.

EMEA/Asia Pacific

We continue to make good progress across EMEA/Asia Pacific, where total and organic revenue growth was 11%. This reflects good take-up rates for global Experian products, particularly decisioning software such as PowerCurve, helping us to secure larger engagements with existing clients and to win new logos.

Foreign exchange modelling considerations

In May, we guided there was an expected 1% impact of foreign exchange to Benchmark EBIT growth rates, updating for latest foreign exchange movements this would now be 4%.

Future events

Experian will release results for the first half ending 30 September 2018 on Tuesday 13 November 2018.