Experian shares surge on sales growth guidance

Shares in credit-checking and data giant Experian surged on Wednesday after the company delivered annual results at the top end of expectations and guided to an acceleration in top-line growth for the coming year.

Group revenues from ongoing activities in the year to 31 March totalled $7.06bn, up 8% year-on-year and up 6% on an organic basis. Analysts at Jefferies said they expected organic growth to be closer to 5%.

Experian said all four of its key regions contributed positively to organic growth, rising by 5% in North America, 13% in Latin America, 2% in the UK and Ireland and 7% in EMEA and Asia Pacific.

Consumer services organic revenues were 7% higher than the precious year, with the free membership base now topping 180m, while B2B organic revenues rose 5% despite muted credit conditions across mature markets like the US and UK.

Group pre-tax profit totalled $1.55bn, up 32% on the previous year, helped by top-line growth and lower non-benchmark costs. The company increased its full-year dividend by 7% to 58.5 cents.

For the current financial year, credit conditions are expected to remain "reasonably subdued", but organic revenue growth should pick up to between 6% and 8%.

"Looking further ahead, we expect the combination of economic recovery, continued new product and vertical market expansion as well as productivity gains from technology cloud transition to elevate our financial performance," said chief executive Brian Cassin.

"We anticipate strong organic revenue growth, good margin accretion and reduced levels of capital expenditure."

The stock was up 8.4% at 3,762p by 0831 BST.