Experian Regulatory News (EXPN)

 news release

Trading update, third quarter

15 January 2016 ─ Experian, the global information services company, today issues an update on trading for the three months to 31 December 2015.

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

"Organic revenue growth was 6% in Q3 as we continue to deliver on our five strategic priorities. Growth was balanced, with all four regions contributing within our targeted mid-single digit range. Strategically, we divested a number of smaller assets to further focus the portfolio and we are expanding rapidly in the key areas of Credit Services and Decision Analytics. In North America Consumer Services, we continue to see underlying improvement in trends and benefited in the quarter from one-off revenue for on-boarding of a new affinity client.

"Looking ahead, our guidance for the full year is unchanged. While foreign exchange will be a headwind, at constant currency we expect organic revenue growth in the mid-single digit range, to deliver stable margins and to see further progress in Benchmark earnings per share."

% change in revenue year-on-year for the three months to 31 December 2015

1 Experian reports in US dollars

In the three months to 31 December 2015, total growth was 6% at constant exchange rates and organic revenue was also up 6%. At actual exchange rates, total revenue from continuing activities was down 3%. The differences relate to foreign exchange translation effects relative to the US dollar. If current rates prevail, on EBIT we now expect a foreign exchange headwind of approximately 11% for the year ending 31 March 2016 and a further headwind of approximately 3% for the year ending 31 March 2017.

By business line, both Credit Services and Decision Analytics delivered organic revenue growth of 8%. Organic revenue growth in Marketing Services was 2% and Consumer Services returned to growth, with organic revenue up 2%.

North America

Total and organic revenue growth in North America was 6%.

Credit Services delivered organic revenue growth of 11%, driven by strong growth in business and consumer credit and double-digit growth in the automotive and health vertical markets. Lenders continue to actively engage in credit marketing and new underwriting activity, driving higher credit prospecting and origination volumes across our consumer and business credit bureaux. In health, new hospital and physician practice bookings were strong and we saw further product uptake within our existing customer base. In automotive we continue to expand across auto lenders, dealers and manufacturers, helped by strength in demand for credit volumes and vehicle history reports. While Decision Analytics was down 2% organically, we saw strength in fraud prevention. Marketing Services delivered organic revenue growth of 1%, helped by strength in data quality and in our cross-channel marketing suite, partially offset by ongoing declines in legacy email marketing.

Consumer Services returned to growth ahead of expectations with organic revenue growth of 3%. We on-boarded a new affinity partner, resulting in one-off revenue during the quarter, which offset continued weakness with other affinity partners. Experian.com continued its positive trajectory with increasing consumer adoption of our new product features and as we develop new ways to engage consumers. Our free product has also made an encouraging start. We have now attracted over two million cumulative free members through freecreditreport.com and we are converting more of them to paid services through cross-sell of membership products and transactions.

Latin America

At constant exchange rates, total and organic revenue in Latin America was up 7%.

Organic revenue growth in Credit Services was 7%. This reflected positive contributions from Brazil and from our other Latin American bureaux. In Brazil, we benefited from growth across both consumer and business information, including an increasing contribution from delinquency notifications linked to higher volumes of non-performing loans. We also continue to benefit from the addition of new analytics and scores. Decision Analytics delivered organic revenue growth of 5%, with new software implementations across the region. Marketing Services delivered organic revenue growth of 4% driven by growth in the cross-channel marketing suite and a growing contribution from data quality services in Brazil.

UK and Ireland

At constant exchange rates, total and organic revenue for UK and Ireland was up 4%.

Credit Services delivered organic revenue growth of 5%, with further progress across both consumer and business information, reflecting strength in the financial services vertical, new strategic client wins, and healthy demand for credit pre-qualification services. Decision Analytics continues to perform strongly, up 8%, helped by new software implementations and strong demand for analytics. Marketing Services was flat as growth in digital marketing and data quality services offset a softer quarter for cross-channel marketing implementations. Consumer Services growth slowed to 2% as the market matures. In response, we plan to broaden our product range over the coming months to offer more segmented services, similar to the evolution of our business in North America.

EMEA/Asia Pacific

At constant exchange rates, total and organic revenue for EMEA/Asia Pacific was up 7%.

Performance across EMEA/Asia Pacific has been driven by considerable strength in Decision Analytics, with organic revenue up 23%, reflecting new deployments of software and other credit decisioning tools, and very strong performance in fraud and identity management services. Marketing Services also performed well, with organic revenue growth of 10%, with good progress in the cross-channel marketing suite and further new client wins in the quarter. Credit Services declined by 5%, in part a reflection of weaker macro conditions in some markets such as South Africa, and as we make changes to position our operations for the future.

Future events

Experian will release full year results on 11 May 2016.

Contact:

This announcement is available on the Experian website at http://www.experianplc.com. There will be a conference call today to discuss this update at 9.00am (UK time), which will be broadcast live on the website with a recording available later.

All financial information in this trading update is based on unaudited management accounts. Certain statements made in this trading update are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these forward-looking statements.

Neither the content of the Company's website, nor the content of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website), is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

About Experian

We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were named by Forbes magazine as one of the 'World's Most Innovative Companies'.

We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil. Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2015, was US$4.8 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, 'Inside Experian'.