Underlying growth continues through Q3 at Relx

Information and analytics company Relx Group reported continued underlying revenue growth in the first nine months of 2017 in a trading update on Wednesday, reaffirming its outlook for the full year.

The FTSE 100 firm said underlying revenue growth was 4% in the first nine months of 2017, during which it acquired six assets for a total consideration of £118m, and disposed of assets for £78m.

It had now completed £650m of the previously-announced £700m share buyback, with the remainder to be deployed by year-end, according to the board.

“The full year outlook is unchanged,” the board said in its statement,

“We are confident that we will deliver another year of underlying revenue, profit, and earnings growth in 2017.”

In its scientific, technical and medical division, Relx said underlying revenue growth was 2%.

“Our customer environment remains largely unchanged.

“Key business trends remained positive in primary research and in electronic databases and tools,” the board said.

“Print book declines moderated relative to a weak prior year comparative, and print pharma promotion declined in line with historical trends.”

The full year outlook for the division saw the board continuing to expect “modest” underlying revenue growth.

In risk and business analytics, underlying revenue growth stood at 8%.

Relx reported “strong” revenue growth across all key segments of the division, in line with the first half of the year.

“The market environment for US insurance remained unchanged from the first half, and business services and other segments continued to see a positive environment.”

The board also expected underlying revenue growth trends to continue in that division.

For the legal unit, underlying revenue growth stood at 2% as market conditions in the US and Europe remained “stable”.

“Other international markets continued to grow well,” Relx claimed.

“The roll out of new platform releases continued, with usage migration progressing well.”

For the full-year outlook, the company said trends in major customer markets were unchanged, continuing to “limit the scope” for underlying revenue growth.

Finally, in exhibitions, underlying revenue growth was 5%, with growth described as “good” in Europe and “strong” in Japan and China.

The US continued to see differentiated growth rates by industry sector, the board said..

“We expect underlying revenue growth trends to continue to be in line with the prior year, with cycling-out effects decreasing the reported revenue growth rate by around five percentage points,” Relx said of its full-year outlook in exhibitions.