# Experian deliver strong and resilient growth, with second interim dividend up 6%

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/experian-deliver-strong-and-resilient-growth-with-second-interim-dividend-up-6/4121119071
- Published: 2023-05-17T07:49:58+01:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**[Experian plc](https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/ftse-company/experian-plc/expn.l)**(
LON:EXPN), the global information services company, has issued its financial report
for the year ended 31 March 2023.

> **Brian Cassin, Chief Executive Officer, commented:**
> “We delivered very strong results in FY23, reflecting a combination of new business
> wins, new products and expansion into higher growth markets. We saw growth in 
> every region, in many cases outperforming our underlying markets substantially.
> Total revenue growth from ongoing activities was 6% at actual exchange rates and
> 8% at constant exchange rates, and organic revenue growth was 7%. Benchmark EBIT
> margin expansion was at the top end of our expectations, helping us to deliver
> Benchmark earnings per share up 9%.
> “For the year ahead, we anticipate another year of growth due to the breadth and
> the resilience of our portfolio, and significant structural growth opportunities.
> Despite the uncertain economic climate, we expect to deliver organic revenue growth
> in the range of 4% to 6% and modest margin accretion, all at constant exchange
> rates and on an ongoing basis.”

| **Benchmark and Statutory financial highlights** | 
| ** ** | **2023
US$m
 | 2022
US$m
 | Actual rates growth % | Constant rates growth % | Organic growth %^(2) | 
| Benchmark¹ |  |  |  |  |  | 
| Revenue – ongoing activities^(3) | 6,587 | 6,216 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 
| Benchmark EBIT – ongoing activities^(3,4) | 1,802 | 1,653 | 9 | 9 | n/a | 
| Total Benchmark EBIT | 1,794 | 1,645 | 9 | 9 | n/a | 
| Benchmark EPS | USc135.1 | USc124.5 | 9 | 9 | n/a | 
| Statutory |  |  |  |  |  | 
| Revenue | 6,619 | 6,288 | 5 | 8 | n/a | 
| Operating profit | 1,265 | 1,416 | (11) | n/a | n/a | 
| Profit before tax | 1,174 | 1,447 | (19) | n/a | n/a | 
| Basic EPS | USc84.2 | USc127.5 | (34) | n/a | n/a | 
| Total dividend | USc54.75 | USc51.75 | 6 | n/a | n/a |

1.   See Appendix 1 (page 14) and note 5 to the financial statements for definitions
of non-GAAP measures.

2.   Organic revenue growth is at constant currency.

3.   Revenue and Benchmark EBIT for the year ended 31 March 2022 have been re-presented
for the reclassification to exited business activities of certain Business-to-Business(
B2B), detail is provided in notes 6(a) and 7 to the financial statements.

4.   See page 15 for reconciliation of Benchmark EBIT from ongoing activities to
Profit before tax.

**Highlights**

·      A year of very strong progress. Q4 organic revenue growth was 7%, to give
7% for the year, taking total revenue growth from ongoing activities to 8% at constant
exchange rates.

·      Consumer Services organic revenue up 11%. We now serve 168 million free members,
up 23 million year-on-year across an expanded range of products and services.

·      B2B organic revenue growth of 6% driven by new business wins, superior data
and new product performance.

·      All regions contributed to organic growth, with significant expansion in 
Latin America, good performances across North America and the UK and Ireland (UK&
I), and improvement in EMEA/Asia Pacific. 

·      Benchmark EBIT rose 9% to US$1,802m.

·      Benchmark EBIT margin uplift at the top end of our expectations. Ongoing 
Benchmark EBIT margin of 27.4%, compared to FY22 reported Benchmark EBIT margin 
of 26.2% and re-presented prior-year comparative margin of 26.6%. Benchmark EPS 
uplift of 9%, Benchmark operating cash flow conversion of 98% and Return on Capital
employed of 16.5%.

·      Statutory profit before tax of US$1,174m down from US$1,447m, predominantly
due to a non-cash charge for the impairment of goodwill of US$179m in EMEA, a decrease
in net gain from associate disposals of US$89m and an increase to the fair value
of contingent consideration. Basic EPS decreased from USc127.5 to USc84.2 reflecting
the lower profit before tax and an increased tax charge.

·      Second interim dividend up 6% to USc37.75 per ordinary share.

There will be a presentation today at 9.30am (UK time) to analysts and investors
via webcast. To view the slides and listen in online please go to www.experianplc.
com for the link.

Experian will update on first quarter trading for FY24 on 13 July 2023.

**Strategic report**

**Part 1 – Chief Executive Officer’s review**

We delivered a very strong performance in FY23, despite a challenging economic backdrop
in many of our markets. It was driven by growth across all of our regions. Our past
investments in data, technology, new products, client service and talent have enhanced
our competitive position, resulting in significant new business wins. At the same
time, the expansion of our product portfolio has positioned many of our businesses
to address higher growth opportunities and over the years we have expanded existing
vertical markets and entered new segments. This is reflected in the strong organic
growth we saw in FY23, despite deceleration in some of our volume-based businesses.
This progress also reflects our focus on improving the foundations of our business,
a very strong culture of innovation and a powerful social mission to help people
thrive financially. It is also down to the hard work of our 22,000 people around
the world who strive every day to make it happen. All of this has helped us to sustain
our growth trajectory, offsetting the effects of the slower macroeconomic backdrop.

Very powerful structural growth trends drive our extensive growth opportunities.
With large and growing addressable markets, we have many opportunities for long 
term growth. In the near term, businesses need to improve productivity, deliver 
better digital experiences and build stronger customer relations, at the same time
as improving risk management, assuring compliance and fighting fraud. Despite short-
term pressures, clients continue to invest in these areas. Advances in technology
continue at pace and will accelerate this. The power of our unique, proprietary 
datasets, and the significant advances we have made in the range and sophistication
of our products, has and will continue to allow us to develop new ways to help customers
to achieve their goals, and we believe these trends will expand our opportunity 
set. Our progress is illustrated by our strong client Net Promoter Score performance
in every region, best-in-class employee engagement, and an increasing number of 
awards recognising this, such as Fortune’s America’s Most Innovative Companies.

So, while the coming year will likely see headwinds in the global economy, we are
very confident in the strategic position of our business, in the resilience of our
portfolio, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead.

**Full-year financial highlights**

·      Revenue growth was in line with our expected performance range. Total revenue
growth from ongoing activities was 6% at actual exchange rates and 8% at constant
currency. Organic revenue growth was 7%. Organic revenue growth is determined on
a constant currency basis and for ongoing activities.

·      All four of our regions contributed positively to our performance. Organic
revenue growth was 7% in North America, 16% in Latin America and 5% in UK&I. EMEA/
Asia Pacific organic revenue growth was 3%.

·      By quarter, organic revenue growth was 8% in Q1, 8% in Q2, 6% in Q3 and 7%
in Q4.

·      B2B organic revenue growth was 6%. We saw strong client adoption of our data-
centric products, powerful analytics and world-leading platforms as we help our 
clients with their shift to digital, to optimise profitability and better manage
risk.

·      In Consumer Services organic revenue was up 11% with growth driven by marketplaces
and memberships. We now have 168 million free consumer members globally.

·      We delivered strong Benchmark EBIT growth, up 9% at both constant and actual
exchange rates.

·      The underlying margin improvement was at the top end of our expectations,
Benchmark EBIT margin for ongoing activities was 27.4%, compared to 26.2% in FY22
and a re-presented prior-year comparative margin of 26.6%. This represented 30 basis
points underlying uplift, and a 50 basis points uplift from foreign exchange translation.

·      We delivered strong growth in Benchmark earnings per share, which increased
by 9%. Basic EPS was USc84.2 (2022: USc127.5), predominantly due to a goodwill impairment
in EMEA of US$179m due to higher interest rates and macroeconomic weakness in our
European markets, and an increase to the fair value of contingent consideration.

·      We had another year of strong cash flow conversion. We converted 98% Benchmark
EBIT into Benchmark operating cash flow. Benchmark operating cash flow was US$1.8bn.

·      ROCE was 16.5%, up 80 basis points on the prior year.

·      We ended the year with Net debt to Benchmark EBITDA at 1.8x, compared to 
our target range of 2.0-2.5x and we have no debt refinancing due until September
2024. Around 90% of our current debt is at fixed interest rates for the next two
years.

**Strategic highlights**

Our performance in FY23 represented further progress on our strategic evolution.
Our strategy is focused on enhancing the depth, breadth, quality and uniqueness 
of our datasets, to which we add advanced analytics and other sophisticated software
solutions to address a range of client requirements, all built on the foundations
of outstanding talent, great technology and world-class innovation. Our solutions
address a wider range of client needs across identity, credit, fraud, compliance
and marketing, and include capabilities such as strategy design, originations, ongoing
customer management and collections. All of our new platforms are cloud-based and
leverage advanced technologies to deliver the best outcomes for our clients and 
consumers. Increasingly, they are integrated capabilities that combine with our 
datasets. More and more of these solutions in the future will address end-to-end
capabilities, for example being able to move seamlessly from initial strategy design
to an executable credit decision in one platform. This brings together the power
of our data, with our industry-leading platforms to create unique and differentiated
solutions.

A key component of our strategy is to grow and deepen our relationships with consumers,
and we are now well on our way to becoming an unrivalled platform for consumer finance.

These actions have positioned Experian to address large, growing markets which, 
we estimate at over US$150bn in scale. Some notable data points in FY23 highlight
the progress we are making:

·      Over US$1.0bn of Group revenue added from new product capability since FY18.

·      We’ve added to the richness and extent of our data assets, with new expanded
sources and user-permissioned data to help our clients manage credit risk, fraud
prevention and transaction categorisation. For example, we have processed over 188
billion consumer-permissioned transactions in our global bureaux and are adding 
new sources of data such as buy-now-pay-later records.

·      Ascend continues its growth trajectory, now with 491 clients globally and
Total Contract Value of US$471m. We are bringing more of our data and software platforms
together and are further embedding analytics across Experian’s broader products 
and services to deliver more solutions to clients which are uniquely Experian.

·      Our expansion into Verifications and Employer Services is progressing well.
North America has achieved revenues of over US$160m and a record count of 47 million,
and we have established access to records representing 77% of the UK PAYE workforce
and have nascent positions in other markets.

·      We continue to grow consumer memberships, deepen customer relations and deliver
new products to both our free and premium members. Free memberships have grown to
168 million. On a like-for-like basis, consumer membership was 145 million, up 16%
year-on-year, and our total now includes 13 million members from Spanish Latin America.

·      The implementation of positive data and other regulatory reforms in Brazil
are expanding the addressable market and enhancing growth opportunities. We now 
have c.200 positive data solutions in market and are delivering significant growth
across data, scores, attributes, fraud, software platforms and much more.

·      Consumer Services now addresses half the Brazilian adult population. It has
moved into profitability, and we are extending our presence into new services such
as e-wallet to add functionality.

·      We are successfully repositioning Targeting to address the larger addressable
market of digital identity resolution to support marketers. Nearly 60% of North 
America Targeting revenues now arise from digital products compared to 26% in FY19.

·      We have further expanded our vertical market presence with strong growth 
in North America Automotive and Health, Agribusiness in Brazil, and as mentioned
above, Verification and Employer Services.

·      We have an extensive roadmap of new product introductions planned in the 
UK&I in FY24 to leverage our global capabilities and build on a strong year for 
B2B new business performance in the region.

·      The first phase of our transformation in EMEA/Asia Pacific is on track with
improving profitability. In the second phase, we are focused on improving growth
with stronger, new product introductions.

·      Our technology transformation is advancing rapidly, we have signed an agreement
with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to be our preferred cloud provider globally, which
will accelerate the rate of product innovation still further.**

**Other financial developments**

Benchmark profit before tax (PBT) was US$1,670m, up 9% at actual exchange rates,
after a net interest expense of US$124m (2022: US$110m). Benchmark net finance expense
increased modestly despite the large increase in market rates thanks to our forward
rate fixing program meaning the average interest rate on our Net debt was broadly
stable at around 3%. For FY24, we expect net interest expense to be in the range
of US$125-130m.

The Benchmark tax rate was 26.0% (2022: 25.7%). For FY24, we expect a rate of around
26-27%, taking into account expected profit mix for the year and an increase in 
the UK corporate tax rate.

Our Benchmark EPS was USc135.1c, an increase of 9% at both constant and actual exchange
rates. For FY24, we expect weighted average number of ordinary shares (WANOS) of
c.914m.

Foreign exchange translation was neutral to Benchmark EPS. For FY24, we expect a
foreign exchange translation effect of c. 0% to +1% impact on revenue and Benchmark
EBIT, assuming recent foreign exchange rates prevail.

Non-benchmark items:

·      Statutory PBT was US$1,174m, down US$273m, as a result of increased non-benchmark
costs.

·      Macroeconomic conditions have contributed to a non-cash impairment of goodwill
of US$179m, partially offset by a gain on financing fair value remeasurements of
US$51m.

·      We have incurred a charge of US$45m for increased contingent consideration
due to over-performance on prior acquisitions.

·      We have also continued to execute on our plans to streamline our geographic
and operational footprint in EMEA/Asia Pacific and associated global functions. 
In connection with this programme in FY23, we have provided for costs of US$69m,
including US$53m of restructuring and US$16m of onerous global support costs for
exited businesses.

_Reconciliation of statutory to Benchmark measures for the year ended 31 March 2023_

| ** ** | **Statutory** | Non-benchmark and other items | **Benchmark** |  | 
| ** ** |  | Investment-related items^(1) | Goodwill impairment | Amortisation of acquisition intangibles | Non-cash financing items | Exceptional items^(2) |  |  | 
|  | **US$m** | US$m | US$m | US$m | US$m | US$m | **US$m** | ** ** | 
|  | **6,587** |  |  |  |  |  | **6,587** | Ongoing | 
|  | **32** |  |  |  |  |  | **32** | Exited | 
| **Revenue** | **6,619** |  |  |  |  |  | **6,619** | **Revenue** | 
| ** ** | ** ** |  |  |  |  |  | ** ** | ** ** | 
| ** ** | **1,273** | 92 | 179 | 192 |  | 66 | **1,802** | Ongoing | 
| ** ** | **(8)** |  |  |  |  |  | **(8)** | Exited | 
| **Operating profit** | **1,265** | 92 | 179 | 192 |  | 66 | **1,794** | **Benchmark EBIT** | 
| ** ** | ** ** |  |  |  |  |  | ** ** | ** ** | 
| **Profit before tax** | **1,174** | 109 | 179 | 192 | (50) | 66 | **1,670** | **Benchmark PBT** | 
| ** ** | ** ** |  |  |  |  |  | ** ** | ** ** | 
| **Basic EPS USc** | **84.2** | 10.2 | 19.7 | 15.4 | (4.5) | 10.1 | **135.1** | **Benchmark EPS USc** |

1.   Investment-related items include the Group’s share of continuing associates’
Benchmark post-tax results.

2.   Exceptional items are analysed in note 8 to the financial statements.

**Capital allocation and liquidity**

·      Cash generation was strong with 98% conversion of Benchmark EBIT into Benchmark
operating cash flow (2022: 109%). Benchmark operating cash flow was US$1.8bn, down(
3)% at actual exchange rates.

·      We continued to invest in data, technology and new products through capital
expenditure, which represented 9% of total revenue. We plan to sustain strong levels
of investment to support our growth, and for FY24 we expect capital expenditure 
to represent c.9% of total revenue.

·      We invested US$480m in acquisitions and US$15m in investments in support 
of our strategic initiatives. Acquisitions were principally in income verification
and employee services, and included CIC Plus, Inc. (CIC Plus) in North America, 
and Pay Dashboard Ltd and the Work Report in UK&I.

·      We are announcing a second interim dividend of USc37.75 per share, up 6%.
This will be paid on 21 July 2023 to shareholders on the register at the close of
business on 23 June 2023. Taking our full-year dividend to USc54.75 per share, up
6%.

·      We have completed our FY23 share repurchase programme for a net cash consideration
of US$175m, which offsets deliveries under employee share plans. We are also announcing
that we will commence a net US$150m share repurchase programme in FY24, which will
again offset deliveries under employee share plans.

·      Our bonds, including derivatives, totalled US$3.9bn as at 31 March 2023 and
had an average remaining tenor of five years. Undrawn committed bank borrowing facilities
were US$2.4bn as at 31 March 2023 (2022: US$2.6bn).

·      At 31 March 2023, Net debt to Benchmark EBITDA was 1.8x, compared to our 
target leverage range of 2.0-2.5x. We have no refinancing commitments until September
2024. Around 90% of our current debt is at fixed interest rates for the next two
years and 67% fixed for at least four years.

**Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)**

The current cost pressures faced by consumers makes gaining access to fair, affordable
credit all the more important. We are focused on our mission and purpose to encourage
broader financial inclusion and to help people to take control of their finances.
This is a defining ethos of our business, and we take great pride in it, doing what
we can to make a positive difference to society.

·      Around 13 million consumers have now connected to Experian Boost, empowering
millions to improve their credit scores and improve their financial lives. Experian
Go launched in the USA in January 2022, enabling ‘credit invisibles’ to establish
their financial identity in minutes, and over 130,000 US consumers have since connected
to the platform. We were delighted that Experian Go was recognised as a 2023 BIG
Innovation Award winner.

·      Since 2013, our social innovation products, specifically developed to deliver
societal benefits and improve financial health, have reached 106 million people,
exceeding our target of 100 million people two years early.

·      Our United for Financial Health programme to improve financial education 
among disadvantaged communities has now connected with 113 million people since 
launch, exceeding our target of 100 million people a year early.

·      We pride ourselves on our ‘people first’ culture. This year we were listed
in Fortune’s 2023 ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ for the fourth consecutive year,
95% of our employees agreed that Experian is committed to creating a diverse, equitable
and inclusive culture, and we were ranked 21st in Equileap’s ‘Top 100 Globally for
Gender Equality’ for 2023.

·      Following recent appointments to our Board, it is now 45% women and includes
two ethnically diverse Board members. Our Board meets the recommendations of the
FTSE Women Leaders Review on gender diversity and the Parker Review on ethnic diversity.

·      As part of our journey to be carbon neutral by 2030 in our own operations,
we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 38% this year, reaching a 65% reduction
since our 2019 base year. 62% of our electricity is now renewable. In order to reduce
our Scope 3 emissions, we are continuing to engage with our suppliers and have improved
our emissions calculations methodology. We are pleased to be recognised again in
the Financial Times’ Europe Climate Leaders 2023 for our success in reducing our
carbon emissions. Our commitment to help tackle climate change is also reflected
in our CDP rating of ‘A-‘, placing us in the Leadership category and among the top
24% of professional services companies. We are working to complete our Net Zero 
Transition Plan in line with the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce draft Disclosure
Framework.**

**Part 2 – Regional highlights for the year ended 31 March 2023**

| ** ** |  | **Year-on-year % change in organic¹ revenue – for the twelve months ended 31 March 2023**** ** | **Benchmark****EBIT****margin²** | 
| % of Group revenue³ | _Data_ | _Decisioning_ | **B2B** | **Consumer Services** | **Total** | **Total** | 
| **North America** | 67 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 7 | 33.1% | 
| **Latin America** | 15 | 12 | 16 | 13 | 32 | 16 | 31.0% | 
| **UK and Ireland** | 12 | 7 | 7 | 7 | (4) | 5 | 21.7% | 
| **EMEA/Asia Pacific** | 6 | – | 13 | 3 | n/a | 3 | 3.3% | 
| **Total global** | 100 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 27.4% |

1.     At constant exchange rates.

2.     At actual exchange rates.

3.     Percentage of Group revenue from ongoing activities calculated based on FY23
revenue at actual exchange rates.

_North America_

Growth in North America was good. Revenue was US$4,432m, with total revenue growth
at constant currency of 8% and organic revenue growth of 7%. Acquisition growth 
included CIC Plus, in employment services, and Gabi in Consumer Services.

In B2B, organic revenue growth was 5% driven by innovation, a diversified portfolio,
and competitive outperformance.

Consumer and Business Information Services delivered low-single digit organic growth
overall, and high-single digit organic growth when mortgage is excluded. This was
despite mixed external conditions in the USA which caused some of our lending clients
to adopt a more cautious stance by tightening their credit criteria. Our growth 
was due to  strong new business outperformance in the year with our differentiated
data assets, real-time data delivery capability, analytics and Experian Ascend major
contributory factors. Ascend continues on a positive trajectory and we continue 
to expand the range of products on the platform. Ascend Ops is the latest innovation
and will sustain momentum. Experian PowerCurve also had a good year, particularly
in collections and analytics. We also made significant progress in Employer and 
Verification Services, adding to our data count, now at 47 million US individuals,
and securing new clients across verification services and for Experian Verify.

We saw growth in automotive, where we have a range of products which combine Experian’s
credit and marketing capabilities, as the industry seeks to stimulate car purchases
and auto lenders adjust to recessionary risk models. In Targeting, which had a very
strong year, we are successfully delivering on our strategy to reposition towards
digital marketing. We are serving higher growth segments of the market having expanded
our position in digital identity and data connectivity and enablement. We also performed
well in Health, despite a strong prior year comparable. We were delighted to be 
recognised as Best in KLAS, a US Health industry award, for our claims and contract
management solutions.

Consumer Services delivered organic revenue growth of 11%. We are deepening and 
growing our member relationships by helping consumers to manage their financial 
health. This year we introduced a range of new features, including new ways to boost
your credit score using rental information and bill negotiation to help with savings.
We are proud that Experian is now a top 15 US finance app (in the Apple App Store)
with a 4.8 star rating. Our membership base has grown to 62 million, up by ten million
year-on-year. We now provide offers across several active verticals, which means
more ways for consumers to engage with Experian in order to manage their finances.
Marketplace delivered another strong year of growth, driven by cards and loans expansion,
even as credit market conditions got somewhat tougher and lenders reduced credit
market supply. New services for lenders have been an important factor in helping
us to outperform in the current environment: Experian Activate enables lenders to
target their offers more precisely and to help them secure higher conversion rates.
We also benefit from the growing diversity of our business model. The contribution
from our insurance vertical is growing rapidly, while premium membership and partner
solutions also contributed positively.

Benchmark EBIT rose 6% to US$1,467m. The Benchmark EBIT margin reduced 40 basis 
points to 33.1%. Margins reflected the mix of growth, investments in our verification
services and our insurance marketplace and our innovations across our scaling verticals.

_Latin America_

Latin America delivered strongly, with revenue of US$947m representing organic revenue
growth of 16% and total revenue growth at constant currency of 18%. Acquisitions
contributing to our performance included Sinacofi, our new bureau in Chile, and 
PagueVeloz in Consumer Services in Brazil.

In B2B, organic revenue growth was 13%.

Credit markets in Brazil continue to undergo significant change brought about by
regulatory reforms, creating new opportunities for our business all driven by the
expansion of the market. We have established over 200 sources of positive data, 
covering 82% of the credit active population, and are seeing strong demand for positive
data solutions, including improved scores, more predictive analytics and sophisticated
software platforms. Ascend is progressing well, with adoption by existing and new
clients. PowerCurve performed well and we are growing strongly in fraud prevention.
We are adding and growing relationships with small and medium enterprises, and our
agribusiness vertical, which is still at an early stage of its development, grew
very strongly.

Spanish Latin America delivered strong growth, reflecting bureau volume strength,
uptake of new richer datasets and advanced analytics. We are also rolling out the
Ascend platform and have benefited from good demand for our fraud and identity management
products.

In Consumer Services, organic revenue growth was 32%. We continue to build our brand
in Brazil with the ambition of becoming one of the most recognised financial services
brands. We added 10 million consumer memberships year-on-year to take our total 
free membership base to 81 million. Our app now ranks at number two of Brazil’s 
top financial services apps (per data.ai). We are enhancing our ecosystem of consumer
offers to encourage engagement and enhance the value of our services to our consumer
members. Revenue growth reflected further progress in our debt resolution service,
Limpa Nome, as we added new partners and settled more debts on the platform, plus
increased usage of our credit marketplace and premium services. We are also developing
services for consumers more widely across Latin America and our membership count
for Spanish Latin America has reached 13 million.

Benchmark EBIT in Latin America was US$294m, up 30% at constant exchange rates. 
The Benchmark EBIT margin from ongoing activities at actual exchange rates was 31.0%,
up by 280 basis points. While we continue to invest in developing new market opportunities,
the margin uplift reflects revenue growth drop-through and improving margin in Consumer
Services as the business scales.

_UK and Ireland_

The UK and Ireland delivered a good performance overall. Revenue was US$784m, with
both total and organic revenue growth at constant exchange rates of 5%.

In B2B, organic revenue was up 7%, a great performance in a year that included periods
of extreme economic instability. Our market position in the UK has strengthened,
driven by investments we have made to extend data superiority and to add new product
capability. As a result, we secured new business wins across a broad range of industry
segments including financial services, energy, utilities and telecommunications.
While lenders have tightened credit criteria, affordability and eligibility products
performed well, and we are helping our clients to cope with the cost-of-living crisis,
as well as to meet new regulatory obligations under the Financial Conduct Authority’s
new Consumer Duty. Fraud and identity management also performed well, with strong
win rates and new business bookings, while Targeting also contributed positively.
While we expect economic conditions in the UK to remain fairly soft, we are confident
we will emerge strongly when the economic cycle turns. Our confidence is underpinned
by a compelling pipeline of new product introductions, which include new Ascend 
modules, products to support fairness in lending and new capabilities to conduct
income and employment verification.

In Consumer Services, organic revenue was down (4)%. While consumer demand for credit
held up relatively well, volumes in our credit marketplace were affected in the 
second half of the year by the reduction in credit supply. Our premium subscription
services were also affected negatively as we lapped a strong prior year comparable.
We are investing in new capabilities to attract and retain members, and introducing
a new Credit Lock feature this year. We plan further new feature introductions in
the months to come. Free memberships were 12 million.

Benchmark EBIT from ongoing activities was US$170m, up 1% at constant exchange rates.
The Benchmark EBIT margin from ongoing activities was 21.7% (2022: 22.2%). The reductions
reflect start-up investment in our income and employment verification initiative,
the commencement of the implementation phase of our UK&I technology migration plan
and lower growth in Consumer Services._

_EMEA/Asia Pacific_

In EMEA/Asia Pacific, revenue from ongoing activities was US$424m, with both total
and organic growth at constant exchange rates of 3%.

The transformation of our EMEA/Asia Pacific operations is progressing well. We have
reduced costs and are exiting from non-core activities. We are focused on realising
our full potential in markets where we have scale by utilising our extensive data
assets and leveraging Experian global platforms. We made progress this year despite
macroeconomic headwinds in some markets.

·      Australia & New Zealand – made good progress positioning Ascend and Experian
One, with positive contributions in data.

·      DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) – delivered a weaker performance 
due to economic headwinds and lower volumes.

·      India – delivered strongly with a strong contribution from our bureau.

·      Italy – performed strongly due to new product innovations and higher bureau
volumes from new business. 

·      South Africa – delivered well, with good progress in decisioning, despite
macroeconomic headwinds.

·      Spain – performed well despite a strong prior-year comparative, with strong
growth from Consumer Information volumes and Open Banking.

Our actions have led to an improved Benchmark EBIT trajectory, which for ongoing
activities was US$14m, up 8%. The Benchmark EBIT margin for ongoing activities improved
to 3.3% from 2.9%.

In the full year ended 31 March 2023, the non-core markets accounted for revenue
of US$32m and Benchmark EBIT of US$(8)m. Due to higher interest rates and macroeconomic
weakness in our European markets we have impaired goodwill in EMEA by US$179m.

**FY24 modelling considerations**

| Organic revenue growth | 4-6% | 
| Benchmark EBIT margin¹ | Modest margin improvement | 
| Foreign exchange | c.0 to +1% on revenue and Benchmark EBIT | 
| Net interest | c.US$125-130m | 
| Benchmark tax rate | 26-27% | 
| WANOS² | c.914m | 
| Capital expenditure | c.9% of revenue | 
| OCF³ conversion | >90% | 
| Share repurchases | US$150m |

1.   At constant exchange rates.

2.   Weighted average number of shares.

3.   Benchmark operating cash flow.

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