Half-yearly financial report for the six months ended 30 September 2007

15 November 2007

Highlights

• Good first half progress
  • good organic sales growth across all four regions
  • investment to drive future growth and operating efficiency
  • Serasa acquisition increases emerging markets exposure
• Total sales growth of 16% to $1.9bn. Sales from continuing activities up 14% at constant exchange rates to $1.9bn, with 6% organic growth.
• Total EBIT of $454m up 15%. Continuing EBIT up 12% at constant exchange rates.
• EBIT margin from continuing activities, excluding FARES contribution, maintained at 21.9% during period of investment.
• Profit before tax of $285m. Benchmark profit before tax of $396m.
• Basic EPS of 22.2 cents. Benchmark EPS of 29.5 cents.
• First interim dividend increased by 18% to 6.5 cents per share.
• Net debt of $3.0bn after funding acquisitions of $1.7bn, mainly Serasa and Hitwise.

John Peace, Chairman of Experian, said:
“Experian has made significant operational and strategic progress in the first half of this year, further positioning the business to continue to deliver long term, sustainable growth.”

Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, said:
“In the first half of this year our business has demonstrated its resilience in the face of exceptionally difficult markets for US and UK financial services. Organic sales growth slowed in the second quarter and we expect further slowdown in the second half due to the market environment. We continue to focus on operational efficiency, and based on current trading conditions we remain on course to deliver full year profits in line with our previous expectations.”

Enquiries:

There will be a presentation today at 9.30am to analysts and investors at the Merrill Lynch Financial Centre, 2 King Edward Street, London, EC1A 1HQ. The presentation can be viewed live on the Experian website at www.experiangroup.com and can also be accessed live via a dial-in facility on 44 (0)20 8322 2180. The supporting slides and an indexed replay will also be available on the website later in the day.

There will be a conference call to discuss the results at 3.00pm today (UK time), which will be broadcast live on the website with a recording available later. All relevant Experian announcements are available on www.experiangroup.com.

Experian will update on trading on 16 January 2008 when it will issue the Interim Management Statement in respect of the Third Quarter.

See Appendix 2 for definition of non-GAAP measures used throughout this announcement and Appendix 3 for reconciliation of sales and EBIT by geography.

Roundings

Certain financial data have been rounded within this announcement. As a result of this rounding, the totals of data presented may vary slightly from the actual arithmetic totals of such data.

Certain statements made in this announcement 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.

View the full press release in PDF format.