John Peace, Chairman of Experian, said:
“Experian delivered a strong financial performance in the face of extraordinary market conditions. This impressive achievement demonstrates the resilience of the business and the breadth of the portfolio, as well as our ability to adapt quickly to changed circumstances. The dividend increase announced today underscores our confidence in the prospects for the business.”
Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, said:
“I am proud of the robust performance of Experian during the year, delivering top line organic growth, and good profit and cash performances. We also continued to invest in our business, helping to distinguish Experian competitively and positioning the business well for future growth. There is more stability today in US and UK financial services than over the past 12 months, but this has yet to translate into significant change in client behaviour, and the near-term economic outlook remains weak. While we expect little organic revenue growth in the first half, for the year as a whole our objective is again to broadly maintain margins, grow profits at constant currency and deliver strong cash flow conversion.”
| Experian | ||
| Don Robert | Chief Executive Officer | 44(0)20 3042 4215 |
| Paul Brooks | Chief Financial Officer | |
| Nadia Ridout-Jamieson | Director of Investor Relations | |
| Alex Brog | Head of Media Relations | |
| Finsbury | ||
| Rollo Head | 44(0)20 7251 3801 | |
| Don Hunter | ||
There will be a presentation today at 9.30am (UK time) 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.experianplc.com and can also be accessed live via a dial-in facility on +44 (0)20 3037 9164. 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.experianplc.com.
Experian will update on first quarter trading on 13 July 2009, when it will issue an Interim Management Statement.
See Appendix 2 for definition of non-GAAP measures used throughout this announcement and Appendix 3 for reconciliation of revenue and EBIT by geography.
As previously disclosed, the reported revenues and profits have been restated to reflect the treatment of transaction processing activities in France as a discontinued operation. In addition, there have been a number of small changes to the Group’s four business segments reflecting evolving business profile and changes in the reporting structure of recent acquisitions. Notes 3 and 8 of the Group financial statements detail these changes and their impact on the financial reporting.
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.