Experian Regulatory News (EXPN)

news release

Trading update, third quarter 

18 January 2017 ─ Experian, the global information services company, today issues an update on trading for the three months ended 31 December 2016.

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

"We delivered organic revenue growth in Q3 of 4%, consistent with our guidance of mid-single digit organic revenue growth and as we lapped a strong prior year comparative. At a global level, Credit Services, Decision Analytics and Marketing Services delivered good growth, reflecting strength in our core markets, investment in new product growth and innovation and the benefits of our One Experian strategy to provide integrated services to our clients. In Consumer Services, we continue to advance our product plans and are encouraged by the increasing levels of engagement with consumers as we help people better manage their credit.

"Looking ahead, our guidance for the full year is unchanged. At a Group level and at constant currencies, we expect organic revenue growth in the mid-single digit range, to deliver stable margins while investing for growth, and further progress in Benchmark earnings per share."

% change in revenue from ongoing activities year-on-year for the three months ended 31 December 2016

1 Experian reports in US dollars

In the three months ended 31 December 2016, total revenue growth from ongoing activities was 6% at constant exchange rates and organic revenue growth was 4%. At actual exchange rates, total revenue growth from ongoing activities was 4% due to weakness in sterling more than offsetting the improvement in the Brazilian real. If current exchange rates prevail through to the end of the year, we would expect a resulting headwind to Benchmark EBIT of approximately 1% for the full year.

% change in organic revenue year-on-year for the three months ended 31 December 2016

1 Ongoing activities only

North America

In North America, we delivered organic revenue growth of 3% and total revenue growth from ongoing activities of 7% reflecting the first full quarter contribution from CSIdentity, our identity fraud protection acquisition. In Credit Services, there was good growth across all areas. In Decision Analytics, new contract wins and a good pipeline of activity should benefit revenue in future quarters. In Marketing Services, there was strong growth from targeting with new contract wins in digital advertising, and an improving performance in cross-channel marketing with elevated volumes through the crucial holiday season.

As anticipated, Consumer Services organic revenue declined reflecting the strong prior year comparative from the on-boarding of a large affinity partner. During the quarter, we market-tested our RightOffer lead generation proposition and we are now adding more lenders and directing more consumer traffic to the platform as we prepare for future growth.

Latin America

Latin America delivered another strong performance with organic revenue growth of 8% at constant exchange rates. In Brazil, we are seeing good growth in our bureau driven by countercyclical products and increased demand for more data and analytics from large banks and retailers. Our bureaux in Spanish Latin America also delivered a strong performance. Across the region, Decision Analytics continued to see strong growth with new contract wins and good demand for analytics and scoring products. Marketing Services also delivered continued strong growth.

UK and Ireland

Organic revenue growth in the UK and Ireland was 2% at constant exchange rates as growth across our business-to-business operations more than offset an expected decline in Consumer Services. We delivered good growth in Credit Services with strength in credit pre-qualification services and credit reference volumes. In Decision Analytics, we saw strong growth with new contract wins and continuing strong demand for decisioning software, analytics services and fraud prevention services. In Marketing Services, we saw strong demand for targeting data and digital advertising services and better client retention in email/cross-channel marketing.

As expected, UK Consumer Services organic revenue declined in the quarter as we evolve the business and diversify our sources of revenue. The consumer response to our free score proposition has been positive with an encouraging number of new customers choosing to upgrade to our premium subscription services. While it is still early days, the new CreditMatcher lead generation service also gained traction with increasing traffic and good levels of customer take-up for our highly targeted credit offers.

EMEA/Asia Pacific

In EMEA/Asia Pacific, organic revenue growth was 6% at constant exchange rates. Decision Analytics continues to deliver strong growth with good demand for our credit decisioning software and fraud prevention services, and we secured good new business wins across both EMEA and Asia Pacific. In Marketing Services, we delivered good growth in cross-channel marketing, data quality and targeting services. Strength in these areas offset slight softness in Credit Services.

Financial position

In the nine months to 31 December 2016, the Group spent US$324m on net share repurchases.

Future events

Experian will release results for the year ending 31 March 2017 on Thursday 18 May 2017.

Contact:

Experian

Andrew Simms Head of Investor Relations +44 (0)20 3042 4195

Gerry Tschopp Senior VP, Group Communications +1 949 677 3377

Finsbury

Rollo Head +44 (0)20 7251 3801

Jenny Davey

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

Experian is the world's leading global information services company. During life's big moments - from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers - we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organisations to prevent identity fraud and crime.

We have 17,000 people operating across 37 countries and every day we're investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximize every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Learn more at www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group.