Capital allocation policy and outstanding debt
Capital allocation policy
Our free cash flow has consistently been strong which has been a key pillar of our disciplined capital allocation.
- Our first priority is to invest in organic innovation to drive growth in the company.
- Secondly we aim to grow the dividend in line with underlying earnings growth.
- Thirdly we look at selective acquisitions which fit with our strategic priorities.
- And we also consider share repurchases. These are normally only done for offsetting the dilutive effect from employee and executive share reward schemes.
Financing strategy
- Our leverage policy is to target benchmark Net debt in the range of 2.0–2.5x EBITDA, commensurate with maintaining a strong investment grade rating (BBB+ / Baa1 or above). Net debt at 31 March 2024 was US$4,053m (2023: US$4,030m), 1.7 times Benchmark EBITDA (2023: 1.8 times).
- When refinancing we aim to space out our debt maturities to mitigate refinancing risk in any one year.
- We hold substantial undrawn committed bank facilities in order to maintain liquidity.
Bank facilities
As at 31 March 2024 we had:
- Undrawn committed revolving credit facilities from banks totalling US$2.4bn with four years average remaining tenor. This includes our core US$1.8bn club facility, committed until March 2029.
- US$3.9bn of outstanding bonds, with an average remaining tenor of four years. The next bond maturity is in September 2024 and 59% of bonds fall due in over four years. 
- Cash and Cash equivalents of US$312m.
All our bank facilities contain one financial covenant requiring us to keep an interest cover of Benchmark EBIT being at least 3x net interest (excluding IFRS16 impact). As at 31 March 2024 this cover was 15x.
Interest rate risk
- Our policy is to have 50% - 100% of our net funding at fixed interest rates, with the remainder at floating interest rates.
- We use interest rate swaps to adjust the balance between fixed and floating rate debt.
- As at 31 March 2024, 87% of our net funding was at fixed interest rates, mitigating the impacts of general rate rises. 
- Our debt levels are usually lower at 31 March due to strong cash inflows during H2. This typically increases the proportion of our debt that is fixed rate at 31 March. Conversely, debt levels are usually higher at 30 September as we pay staff incentives in June and the final dividend in July, which then reduces the proportion of debt which is at fixed rates.
- The effective interest rate on loan and bond debt, including derivatives, was 3.1% for the year ended 31 March 2024 (2023: 2.9%).
Percent of debt at fixed interest rates graph
FX risk
- In business trading our revenues and costs are substantially in the same currency for most countries, minimising transactional FX risk. There is a translation risk when local currencies are converted into USD.
- Our borrowings are in USD, GBP and EUR. Looking at our total borrowings (bonds, drawn bank facilities and commercial paper) we aim for an allocation of our borrowings broadly in line with the currencies of our earnings, though we do not borrow in Brazilian Real or Colombian Peso. We use FX contracts to manage residual currency risk exposures.

Credit ratings

Our aim is to maintain a strong investment grade credit rating (BBB+ / Baa1 or above). Our current credit ratings are:

  Standard & Poor’s Moody’s
Long term A- A3
Long term outlook Stable Stable
Short term A-1 P-2

Bond maturity profile

Experian aims to maintain a smooth profile for its bond debt to minimise refinancing risk in any given year.

Bond Maturity Profile (US$)

Position at 31 March 2024; financial years shown.

The values shown above are shown before the impact of cross-currency swaps and FX swaps. Note that the allocation of bond debt across the currencies is broadly in line with the currencies of our earnings, as noted above. The FX rate used to translate GBP and EUR bonds to USD is the rate as at 31 March 2024.

Outstanding debt

Bond debt Issuer Currency Amount (mils) Coupon Maturity date Issue date Series Rating
Euronotes Experian Finance plc GBP 400 0.739% 29 Oct 2025 October 2020 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc EUR 500 1.375% 25 Jun 2026 May 2017 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
US Notes Experian Finance plc USD 500 4.25% 1 Feb 2029 January 2019   A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
US Notes Experian Finance plc USD 750 2.75% 8 March 2030 December 2019   A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Europe DAC EUR 500 1.56% 16 May 2031 February 2022 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc GBP 400 3.25% 7 Apr 2032 April 2020 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc EUR 650 3.375% 10 October 2034 September 2024 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook