RELX full year profit rises, to buy back more shares

For the year ended 31 December, the group saw underlying revenue growth of 3% to £5.97bn, reflecting continued good growth in electronic and face to face revenues, partially offset by continued print revenue declines.

At the same time, adjusted operating profit increased 5% to £1.82bn, while reported profit after tax was up 6% to £1bn.

Chief executive officer Erik Engstrom said: "We achieved good underlying revenue growth in 2015, and continued to generate underlying operating profit growth ahead of revenue growth through continuous process innovation. Our financial position and cash flow profile remain strong."

"Our number one priority remains the organic development of increasingly sophisticated information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers. In 2015 we continued to support our organic strategy with a number of small acquisitions."

RELX proposed a full year dividend of 29.7p per share, up 14% from the previous year.

In 2015, the company deployed £500m on share buybacks and this year it intends to deploy a total of £700m, of which £100m has already been completed.

At 0816 GMT, Relx shares were up 0.1% to 1,218p.