news release

Trading update, first quarter

14 July 2016 ─ Experian, the global information services company, today issues an update on trading for the three months to 30 June 2016.

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

"We delivered organic revenue growth in Q1 of 5%. Notably, Credit Services and Decision Analytics have continued to grow strongly, reflecting strength in our core markets. In Consumer Services, we continue to execute on our strategy to diversify our business model and engage consumers through a full range of free and paid-for products.

"We are closely monitoring the possible implications of a UK exit from the European Union. While there is uncertainty as to how and when any exit will take effect, we continue to run our business as usual, and we have seen no significant adverse impact to trading in our UK business. As a global business with a diverse portfolio, we have a good track record of adapting to changing market conditions.

"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 and to deliver stable margins as we invest for growth. We also continue to expect further progress in Benchmark earnings per share.

"There continues to be considerable fluctuation in currency exchange rates and in the quarter sterling weakened and the Brazilian real strengthened, both relative to our reporting currency of the US dollar. If current exchange rates prevail through to the end of the year, we would expect a headwind to EBIT of approximately 1%, weighted to the first half."

% change in revenue year-on-year for the three months to 30 June 2016

1 Experian reports in US dollars

In the three months to 30 June 2016, total revenue growth was 5% at constant exchange rates and organic revenue was also up 5%. At actual exchange rates, total revenue from continuing activities was up 1% due to weakness in sterling and in the Brazilian real.

% change in organic revenue year-on-year for the three months to 30 June 2016

1 Continuing activities only

North America

We continue to deliver good growth in North America, where organic revenue rose by 5%. Underlying market conditions are healthy for Credit Services clients, giving rise to robust demand for credit marketing and new loan origination services. Our One Experian approach is resulting in new client wins as we put the full power of our data, analytics and software to work in solving problems for our clients. Health continues its strong trajectory with further momentum in new client wins and expansion within existing clients. In Decision Analytics, new software deals won in the quarter will begin to benefit revenues later in the year, whilst in Marketing Services, strong growth in cross channel marketing offset attrition in traditional email.

As we anticipated, Consumer Services grew at a similar rate to Q4 of last year. Our premium membership service, Experian.com, is performing well and we are attracting significant volumes of traffic through our free sites, where we have accumulated 4.5 million members since launching the programme just over a year ago. We continue to execute against our plans to enrich our consumer propositions, enhance consumer engagement and to monetise free traffic through cross-sell of membership products and lead generation. These factors, along with growth in the affinity channel, have helped to offset declines in the legacy base. 

Latin America

With organic revenue growth of 8%, Latin America delivered another strong performance in a market environment which remains tough. Trends in Credit Services are largely unchanged with strength in Brazil reflecting deeper client penetration, growth in countercyclical delinquency notification products, and positive contributions from our other Latin American bureaux. We delivered strong growth across both Decision Analytics and Marketing Services, as we execute on our strategy to build out beyond Credit Services. We passed another important milestone earlier this week with the launch in Brazil of our new free credit report proposition for consumers, a major step forward in building our services for consumers in Brazil.

UK and Ireland

Organic revenue growth in the UK and Ireland was 1%. We continued with good momentum across Credit Services, helped by new business wins, strength in credit reference volumes and a strong performance from credit pre-qualification services. In Decision Analytics, underlying performance is strong, with good win rates and a robust pipeline. Growth rates in the quarter reflect the lapping of a very strong comparative from the rollout of a new verification service in the UK public sector last year. In Marketing Services, we saw strength in targeting, helped by growth in digital marketing, offsetting a decline in traditional email marketing.

As expected, UK Consumer Services organic revenue softened in Q1 as we started the transition towards a more diverse, multi-service model. While we are in the early stages of this transition, we are accelerating the pace of change having delivered a number of new product releases and technical enhancements in the quarter. We are trialling new offers, launched a new credit-matching service and mobile applications for consumers, and we saw good take-up rates for scores-on-statements through our third party partners.

EMEA/Asia Pacific

Organic revenue growth in EMEA/Asia Pacific was 9% with good new business wins across both EMEA and Asia Pacific. We have a growing pipeline of opportunities, particularly for Decision Analytics where we are benefiting from strong take-up of credit decisioning and fraud prevention capabilities, and in Marketing Services, driven by good demand for cross-channel marketing and data quality services.

Future events

Experian will hold its Annual General Meeting on 20 July 2016 and will release half-year results on 9 November 2016.

Contact:

Experian

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

Nishma Shah              Head of Public Relations, UK and Ireland       +44 (0)20 3042 4313

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

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 31 March 2016, was US$4.6 billion.

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