Preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2008

21 May 2008

Highlights

• Good revenue, profit and cash performance against a backdrop of difficult market conditions.
• Total revenue growth of 18% at actual exchange rates to US$4.1bn. Revenue from continuing activities up 14% at constant exchange rates to US$4.1bn. Organic revenue growth of 4%.
• Total EBIT growth of 15% at actual exchange rates to US$945m. Continuing EBIT up 13% at constant exchange rates.
• EBIT margin of 21.8% from continuing activities, excluding FARES contribution, in line with prior year (2007: 21.9%) during period of investment.
• Profit before tax of US$549m. Benchmark profit before tax of US$819m.
• Basic EPS of 43.3 US cents. Benchmark EPS of 60.3 US cents.
• Swift action to improve efficiency and reduce costs, with annualised cost savings target raised to US$110m from US$80m.
• Strong contribution from strategically important expansion into Brazil via Serasa, on plan for revenue, ahead on EBIT.
• Excellent cash conversion of 95%.
• Net debt of US$2.7bn after funding acquisitions of US$1.7bn, mainly Serasa and Hitwise.
• Second dividend of 12.0 US cents per share, to give full year dividend of 18.5 US cents per share, up 9%.

John Peace, Chairman of Experian, said:
“Experian has delivered another year of strong revenue and EBIT growth and continues to make excellent strategic progress. This strong outcome in challenging trading conditions demonstrates the strength and diversity of the Experian business.”

Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, said:
“This has been a challenging year in many ways. The major disruption that took place in the financial services sector was unprecedented, but we delivered good profit and cash performances. Experian is a strong business, performing well in difficult markets. While it is still too early to call a turn in the US and the UK financial services markets, and US Credit Services continues to soften, we have taken the necessary steps to reduce costs and protect margins and we expect to continue to deliver strong performances in Experian’s other regions and key business lines. Although we face strong comparables in the first quarter of this year, when organic revenue may be flat to slightly down, we remain confident on the outlook.”

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 10 July 2008, when it will issue the Interim Management Statement in respect of the First Quarter.

See Appendix 2 for definition of non-GAAP measures used throughout this announcement and Appendix 3 for reconciliation of revenue 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.