16 July 2024
If you are covering Experian’s latest results, please see the following comment from Tom Gilbey, equity research analyst at Quilter Cheviot:
"Experian, a global leader in consumer and business credit reporting, in its latest results showed a solid start to the year with a 7% organic revenue growth in the first quarter, aligning with market expectations. However, its Latin American business showed some signs of weakness due to one-off events with a normalisation expected in coming quarters.
"The view is that Experian will benefit from favourable tailwinds in the growing uses of consumer and business data. Similarly, the company is investing in more value-add technology which should help to drive strong organic growth evidenced in this set of results. The company also works within a favourable competitive environment with barriers to entry.
"Its North American business continues to perform well with an 8% organic revenue growth. The business-to-business (B2B) sector here grew by 7%, while consumer services saw a 10% increase. One of the big highlights was the strong performance of its new business to consumer insurance offering.
"In Latin America, overall growth was 5%. The Consumer Services segment was a standout growing by 24%. However, B2B growth was slower at just 1% affected by deal timings and severe weather conditions. Despite this, Experian expanded its free membership base to 100 million users, including 86 million in Brazil. There is a big opportunity in Brazil for Experian should it be able to capitalise on it.
"Other regions such as the UK and Ireland also saw more subdued growth of just 2% but saw higher levels in Europe, the Middle East and Asia of circa 7%.
"Experian remains confident in its future, reiterating its guidance for 2025 with it expecting an increase in its profit margin and revue growth of 6-8% and an increase in profit margins."
