RELX Plc Q4 FY2025 earnings call

Management Statement and Operational Highlights

• Strategic direction remains unchanged, with focus on shifting business mix towards higher growth analytics and decision tools powered by artificial intelligence.
• Group financials: Underlying revenue growth 7%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth 9%, adjusted operating margin improved to 34.8%.
• Cash flow: Strong, with GBP 1.5 billion share buyback completed, GBP 270 million in acquisitions, and dividend payments of GBP 1.2 billion.
• Product-specific highlights: Risk's AI-enabled analytics driving machine-to-machine interactions; Insurance's innovation in contributory databases and market-specific solutions; STM's new product introductions and strong article growth; Legal's AI platform adoption and partnerships with workflow companies; Exhibitions' digital initiatives improving growth profile.

Segment Performance

• Risk: Underlying revenue growth 8%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth 10%; ~40% of divisional revenue from financial crime compliance and digital fraud/identity solutions.
• Insurance: ~40% of divisional revenue, growth driven by innovation and market-specific solutions.
• STM (Scientific, Technical, and Medical): Underlying revenue growth 5%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth 7%; Databases, Tools & Electronic Reference ~40% of revenue, Primary Research ~50%+ of revenue with over 20% growth in article submissions and 10% in published articles in 2025.
• Legal: Underlying revenue growth 9%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth 12%; ~70% of revenue from Law Firms & Corporate Legal, driven by adoption of AI-enabled legal platform Lexis+ AI.
• Exhibitions: Underlying revenue growth 8%, underlying adjusted operating profit growth 9%, margins above historical levels.

Guidance

• Expect continued strong underlying revenue growth across segments, with underlying adjusted operating profit growth exceeding revenue growth.
• Risk: Aim to sustain strong long-term growth; STM and Legal: Continue improving growth trajectories; Exhibitions: Sustain strong long-term growth.
• Outlook for Exhibitions: Continued strong revenue growth and improved adjusted operating margin over prior full year.

Risks

• Competitive pressures in legal tech and other segments, including potential competition from large software companies in AI-enabled workflows.
• Regulatory challenges related to data use, collection, and compliance across segments.
• Potential impact of economic conditions on subscription-based revenue, particularly in subscription-heavy segments like STM and Legal.

Question and Answer

Q: Concerns about incremental competition in Legal segment around AI-enabled workflow tools.

A: Legal sees strong adoption with Lexis+ AI user base doubling in the past year, and partnerships with over 25 workflow and software-related companies, viewing them as complements rather than competitors.

Q: STM outlook and growth considerations.

A: STM has improving momentum with strong submissions growth and new product ramp, though growth is gradual in the subscription-heavy business.

Q: Protege AI workflows differentiation.

A: Protege offers content-enabled workflows with unique curated content and large user base, providing differentiated value through trusted content integration.

Q: Autonomous driving impact on Insurance.

A: Opportunities exist due to enhanced safety features and more data for risk analysis, with the value at stake increasing as the industry evolves.

Q: STM addressable market and pricing.

A: Over 10,000 institutions as potential customers for LeapSpace, with pricing based on institution scale and research intensity, gradual ramp expected.

Q: Operating leverage and margins with AI.

A: AI enables process efficiency, allowing cost growth to remain below revenue growth, with potential for wider gap between profit and revenue growth.

Q: Legal data sets and interoperability.

A: Unique comprehensive content and data sets provide a sustainable competitive moat, with limited licensing of content, focusing on content advantage.

Q: Risk growth dynamics.

A: 90% of Risk's revenue from machine-to-machine interactions, with hard-to-replicate data and algorithms, benefiting from AI tool evaluations for added customer value.

Q: STM corporate opportunity and Legal tech consolidation.

A: Corporate STM is a gradual growth opportunity, law firms will continue experimenting with tech, and Risk's new sales in Insurance come from innovative data use in new product lines