RELX Plc Q4 FY2024 earnings call

• Financials: Underlying revenue growth was 7%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 10%, adjusted operating margin was 33.9%, adjusted earnings per share up 9% at constant currency. Cash conversion 97%, leverage 1.8x. Proposed 7% dividend increase to 63p per share.
• Acquisitions/Disposals: £195M on 5 acquisitions, £95M from 7 disposals, £1B share buybacks. £195M on five acquisitions, £95M from seven disposals, £1B on share buybacks.
• Strategic Direction: Shift to higher growth analytics/decision tools, managing cost growth below revenue growth for improved returns. Improving long-term growth trajectory driven by business mix shift towards higher growth analytics and decision tools.

Risk: Underlying revenue growth was 8% and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 9%. Over 90% of divisional revenue comes from machine-to-machine interactions, driven by Financial Crime Compliance, Digital Fraud & Identity Solutions, Commodity Intelligence, and analytics/decision tools. STM: Underlying revenue growth was 4% and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 5%. Driven by databases, tools, electronic reference (higher value-add analytics) and primary research (volume growth, articles submitted up over 20%, published up 15%). Legal: Underlying revenue growth improved to 7% (up from 6% last year) driven by shift to higher-value legal analytics. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 9%. Lexis+ and Lexis+ AI performing well, Protégé generative AI legal assistant well-received. Exhibitions: Underlying revenue growth of 11%, reflecting improved event portfolio and digital tools, with lower cost base.

• Risk: Sustain strong long-term growth in current range.
• STM: Continue on improving growth trajectory.
• Legal: Continue strong underlying revenue growth, adjusted operating profit growth exceeding revenue growth.
• Exhibitions: Strong underlying revenue growth, improvement in adjusted operating margin over prior full year. 2025 expects strong underlying revenue and adjusted operating profit growth, 7% dividend increase, £1.5B share buybacks.

• Market/Regulatory: Uncertainties in U.S. research funding and other regulatory changes affecting specific segments.
• Business Mix Transition: Print decline in STM and potential lumpy effects from disposal/acquisition activities.

Q: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. As you may have seen from our press release this morning, we delivered strong financial results in 2024 to make further operational and strategic progress. Underlying revenue growth was 7%. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 10%. Adjusted earnings per share growth was 9% at constant currency. And we are proposing a 7% increase in the pound sterling full year dividend. All four business areas continue to perform well. And on this chart, you can also see the relative sizes of the segments within each business area. In Risk, underlying revenue growth was 8% and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 9%. Strong growth continues to be driven across segments by our deeply embedded AI-enabled analytics and decision tools with over 90% of divisional revenue coming from machine-to-machine interactions. Business Services continue to be driven by Financial Crime Compliance and Digital Fraud & Identity Solutions with strong new sales. Insurance was driven by further extension of solution sets across markets, continued positive market factors and new sales. Specialized Industry Data Services was led by Commodity Intelligence, and Government continue to be driven by analytics and decision tools. Going forward, we expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In STM, underlying revenue growth was 4% and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 5%. Growth continued to be driven by the development of analytics and further evolution of the business mix, with higher growth segments representing an increasing proportion of divisional revenue and remaining print shrinking at a faster pace than historical averages. Databases, Tools & Electronic Reference was driven by further development and rollout of higher value-add analytics and decision tools. Primary Research was driven by volume growth. The number of articles submitted continued to grow very strongly across the portfolio by over 20%, and the number of articles published grew by 15%. Going forward, we expect continued good underlying revenue growth, with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In Legal, underlying revenue growth improved further to 7%, up from 6% last year, driven by the continued shift in business mix towards higher-value legal analytics. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was ahead of underlying revenue growth at 9% as we continue to manage cost growth below revenue growth. Lexis+, our integrated platform, leveraging extractive AI, continued to perform well. And Lexis+ AI, leveraging generative, made good progress in the U.S. and in international markets. Protégé, our recently launched next-generation generative AI legal assistant, which we demonstrated in our legal seminar last October, has been positively received by our customers. Going forward, we expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth exceeding underlying revenue growth. Exhibitions delivered underlying revenue growth of 11%, reflecting the improved growth profile of our event portfolio and the favorable first half comparison to the prior year. We continue to make good progress with our growing range of value-enhancing digital tools and the improvement in profitability reflects the structurally lower cost base. Going forward, we expect strong underlying revenue growth with an improvement in adjusted operating margin over the prior full year. Our strategic direction is unchanged. Our improving long-term growth trajectory continues to be driven by the ongoing shift in business mix towards higher growth analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers. Our growth objectives remain, for Risk, to sustain strong long-term growth in the current range; for both STM and Legal, to continue on the improving growth trajectory; and for Exhibitions, to continue on the improved long-term growth profile. When combined with our strategy of driving continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth, the result is a higher growth profile with improving returns. I will now hand over to Nick Luff, our CFO, who will talk you through our results in more detail. I'll be back afterwards for a quick wrap-up and Q&A.

A: Thank you, Erik. Good morning, everyone. Let me start by providing more detail on the group financials. As Erik said, underlying revenue growth was 7% with underlying adjusted operating profit growth ahead of that at 10%. As a result, the adjusted operating margin improved by just under 1 percentage point to 33.9%. The improved operating result flowed through to adjusted earnings per share, which at constant currency increased by 9%. Cash conversion was again strong at 97%, contributing to a reduction in leverage to 1.8x, slightly below our typical range. Given the strong overall performance, we are proposing an increase in the full year dividend of 7% to 63p per share. Our acquisition spend was slightly below our normal range with £195 million on five acquisitions, and we made seven disposals with aggregate consideration of £95 million, and we deployed £1 billion on share buybacks. Looking at revenue, you can see here the drivers of the overall 7% underlying growth. Continued strong growth in Risk, good growth in STM, strong growth with a further pickup in Legal and strong growth in Exhibitions. Electronic revenue, representing 83% of the total, saw 7% underlying growth with the strong growth in face-to-face activity offsetting the effects of the print decline. Total revenue growth at constant currency for the group was 6%, with the impact of disposals more than offsetting acquisitions and the benefit from 2024 being a cycling in year for Exhibitions. In sterling, total revenue growth was 3%, impacted by the relative strength of sterling against the dollar and the euro in particular. Here you can see the 10% underlying growth in group adjusted operating profit. We continue to manage cost growth below revenue growth in each business area. As a result, Risk, STM and Legal each delivered underlying profit growth 1 or 2 percentage points ahead of underlying revenue growth. Exhibitions delivered very strong underlying profit growth, reflecting the increase in activity levels in the first half as well as the structurally lower cost base. Portfolio effects were a slight drag, leaving total growth in constant currency at 9%. There was a similar currency effect on profit as there was on revenue giving adjusted operating profit growth in sterling at 6%. With profit growth ahead of revenue growth, margins improved across all four business areas, driving the overall improvement of 80 basis points to 33.9%. Margins were up by 60 basis points in Risk, 40 in STM and 50 in Legal. Exhibitions margins saw a further significant improvement by 250 basis points and are now well ahead of pre-pandemic levels. Turning to the group adjusted income statement. You can see here the underlying growth of 7% in revenue and 10% in operating profit. The interest expense was slightly lower with a slightly lower effective interest rate and some currency benefit. That left profit before tax up 11% at constant currency and up 7% in sterling. The effective tax rate was 22.5%, up from the prior year, which had the benefit of some nonrecurring tax credits. Net profit was up 8% at constant currency and up 4% in sterling to just over £2.2 billion. Turning to cash flow. Cash conversion was 97%, similar to last year. EBITDA was over £3.7 billion, and CapEx was £484 million, equating to 5% of revenue. After interest and tax, total free cash flow was over £2.1 billion. And here's how we deployed that free cash flow. We completed five small acquisitions for a total consideration of £195 million, the most significant of which was the Henchman technology business in Legal, which brings enhanced functionality to the Protégé offering. In December, we announced the acquisition of IDVerse, an ID document verification platform for Business Services and Risk. Completion is expected in the first quarter of this year. We also made seven small disposals in 2024 for aggregate consideration of £95 million. Dividend payments were £1.1 billion. And as I mentioned earlier, we completed £1 billion of share buybacks. Overall, year-end net debt increased slightly to just under £6.6 billion. However, with the increased EBITDA, leverage fell 1.8x. Our priorities for use of cash remain unchanged. Organic development is our number one priority with CapEx consistently around 5% of revenues. We augment that organic development with selective acquisitions with the level of spend typically being the most significant variable in our uses of cash, depending on the opportunities that arise. Average acquisition spend over both the last 5 and 10 years has been around £400 million, with 2024 a below average year. We pay out around half of our adjusted earnings in dividends, and have increased the dividend every year for well over a decade. Leverage defined as net debt to EBITDA, has typically been in the 2.0 to 2.5x range. Strong cash generation, improving EBITDA and modest acquisition spend in the year and the leverage at the end of 2024 was below that typical range at 1.8x. We continue to return our surplus capital through the share buyback with £1.5 billion of spend announced today for 2025, of which £150 million has already been deployed. With that, I will hand you back to Erik.

Q: George Webb with Morgan Stanley asked about buyback messaging and working capital.

A: Nick Luff said on buyback, with growing EBITDA, shareholder returns exceed free cash flow after acquisition spend due to low acquisition spend and proactive disposals. On working capital, no particular swings, net negative position with no systematic trends.

Q: Adam Berlin with UBS asked about STM print decline and research funding.

A: Erik Engstrom said print decline in STM is due to strategic shift to higher growth segments, research funding uncertainties have always come and gone, article growth driven by volume and quality migration to high-quality journals.

Q: Nick Dempsey with Barclays asked about Legal growth and Exhibitions exit.

A: Erik Engstrom said Legal growth driven by new product introductions, Exhibitions sold out of Austrian business with no trend break in growth.

Q: Sami Kassab with BNP Paribas asked about Legal GenAI impact and STM growth.

A: Erik Engstrom and Nick Luff said Legal growth includes GenAI products, STM growth expected to improve with business mix shift.

Q: Henry Hayden with Redburn Atlantic asked about Risk margin, cloud costs, and STM analytics.

A: Erik Engstrom and Nick Luff said Risk margin balanced with growth, cloud costs managed for efficiency, STM analytics adoption includes extractive and generative AI tools.

Q: Steve Liechti with Deutsche Numis asked about STM revenue breakdown and Exhibitions revenue.

A: Erik Engstrom said STM breakdown and Exhibitions revenue growth expectations with seasonality considerations