Experian made significant progress this year. We advanced strategically across multiple fronts and our financial performance was strong. This reflects effective execution against our long-term plans, sustained by the investments we have made in new products, in our technology platforms and in new business development opportunities. I am proud of the accomplishments of our 20,600 people around the world.

Total revenue growth was 17% at constant currency, while organically we grew 12%. We have made material progress towards positioning Experian as a major brand to help people with their financial health, reaching 134 million free members across our three largest markets. We are helping to democratise credit, making it simpler, faster and cheaper for people and businesses to achieve good outcomes. Our products form part of the critical infrastructure of financial services, health, automotive and many other industries, and our growth opportunities are driven by investments to upgrade infrastructure, digitise platforms, provide better experiences to customers and protect against fraud. We are also taking advantage of a unique market opportunity in Brazil, as well as successfully entering new market segments, such as income and employment verification.

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Full-year financial highlights

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• Total revenue growth was 17% at both constant and actual exchange rates. At constant currency organic revenue growth was 12%.
• Organic revenue growth in North America was 13%, 17% in Latin America and 11% in UK and Ireland, including very strong contributions from Consumer Services across all three regions.
• EMEA/Asia Pacific delivered 3% organic revenue growth with a positive EBIT margin trajectory, reflecting our shift to focus on strategic markets.
• B2B organic revenue growth was 9%, reflecting strength in data volumes, uptake of new data sources, further adoption of our innovative platforms, progress across fraud and identity management services and expansion in new vertical segments.
• We made significant progress in Consumer Services, with organic revenue up 22%, reflecting membership growth and expanded consumer propositions.
• Growth in Benchmark EBIT was 19% at both constant and actual exchange rates.
• Our Benchmark EBIT margin was 26.2%, up 60 basis points at constant currency and up 40 basis points at actual exchange rates.
• We delivered growth in Benchmark earnings per share of 21% at both constant and actual exchange rates.
• Cash flow was very strong, with a conversion rate of Benchmark EBIT into Benchmark operating cash flow of 109%. Benchmark operating cash flow was US$1.8bn, up 22% at actual exchange rates.
• We ended the year with a leverage ratio of 1.9x, compared to our target of 2.0-2.5x for Net debt to Benchmark EBITDA.

B2B organic revenue growth was 9%:

• In Data, volumes were generally strong. This reflected economic rebound across most geographies, client take-up of our extensive data assets and successful extension into new client segments. New products and vertical development were also meaningful contributors to our performance. Ascend delivered strong growth. We also benefitted from the uptake of positive data attributes and scores in Brazil, and we added to our data coverage in income and employment data and signed over 100 client contracts for Experian Verify in North America.
• In Decisioning, we secured new wins for our cloud-enabled decisioning platforms. We also made significant progress across fraud and identity management, as well as across analytics.
• Vertical markets also contributed strongly. In Health, healthcare providers in the USA are investing to improve digital consumer experiences, and we delivered strong progress across all major product lines in our suite. This included some benefit from one-off COVID-19 related services. Automotive delivered a solid performance reflecting market rebound and a strong contribution from recent innovations.

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Consumer Services organic revenue growth was 22%:

• We now have 134 million free consumer memberships across our three largest markets, up by 24 million year-on-year. During the year we added 11 million free members in the USA, 12 million in Brazil and 1.5 million in the UK.
• All regions delivered strong growth enabled by increased memberships, scaling of our credit marketplaces, and the addition of new propositions to our ecosystem to help our members save money.
• We are investing in new verticals such as insurance to further extend our North America insurance marketplace offer for our members, helping to bring them a better insurance customer experience.

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Revenue and Benchmark EBIT by region, Benchmark EBIT margin

1 Results for FY21 are re-presented for the reclassification to exited business activities of certain B2B businesses.

Total growth and organic growth percentages are at constant exchange rates.

See the Financial review for analysis of revenue, Benchmark EBIT and Benchmark EBIT margin by business segment and note 6 to the Group financial statements.

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Year-on-year % change in organic revenue¹ – for the year ended 31 March 2022

1 At constant exchange rates.

2 Percentage of Group revenue from ongoing activities calculated based on FY22 revenue at actual exchange rates.

3 Business-to-Business (B2B) segment, consisting of Data and Decisioning business sub-divisions.

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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) highlights

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• We launched Experian Go in the USA in January, which allows credit invisibles to start building a credit profile in minutes. Since launch, 40,000 consumers have connected to Experian Go. We were also delighted to be recognised as a 2022 BIG Innovation Award winner for delivering innovative products that help consumers thrive financially.
• We reached 21 million people through our social innovation products this year, our programme to deliver societal benefits and improve financial health, bringing the total to 82 million since 2013. This compares to our target of 100 million people by 2025.
• Our flagship United for Financial Health programme (UFH) has now connected with 87 million people and is on track to meet our target of 100 million by 2024. Through partnerships with NGOs across our regions, it provides financial education to empower vulnerable communities.
• We pride ourselves in our ‘people first’ culture and were delighted in surveys that 88% of our employees believe that Experian is committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) culture. Currently 33% of our Senior Leaders are female, representing further progress towards our target of 40% by FY24. Our North America and EMEA/Asia Pacific regions (together representing 73% of Group revenues) are led by women, and 36% of our Board are female.
• Our commitment to working with integrity includes our approach to tax. To enhance our transparency, we are publishing a Tax Report in June 2022, explaining our approach to tax and providing more information on our tax contribution.
• We are pleased to be recognised as one of the Financial Times’ Europe Climate Leaders 2022 for our efforts in reducing our carbon emissions. As part of our journey to be carbon neutral by 2030 in our own operations, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 44% since our base year 2019. We’re engaging with our suppliers in order to reduce our Scope 3 emissions. We were also proud to be named by CDP as a 2021 Supplier Engagement Leader. We are now progressing with our planning toward our Net Zero transition.

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People

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• On 19 January 2022, Experian’s Board announced the appointment of Craig Boundy as Chief Operating Officer and Jennifer Schulz as CEO, North America, both from 1 April 2022. We also announced that Kerry Williams would retire from our Board at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on 21 July 2022 and that Craig would be appointed to our Board at that time. We thank Kerry for his outstanding contribution to Experian and wish him well for his retirement.
• Two of our independent non-executive directors, Deirdre Mahlan and George Rose, will also retire from our Board at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on 21 July 2022, having completed nine years’ service on the Experian Board. We wish to thank Deirdre and George for their significant contributions to Experian since joining our Board in 2012.
• The Experian Board announces that Jonathan Howell has been appointed to succeed Deirdre as Chair of the Audit Committee from 1 July 2022 and that Alison Brittain has been appointed to succeed George as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee from the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on 21 July 2022. Both Jonathan and Alison are existing independent non-executive directors.

Capital allocation and liquidity

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• Cash generation was very strong, and we ended the year with leverage of 1.9x net debt/Benchmark EBITDA.
• Benchmark operating cash flow was US$1.8bn, up 22% at actual exchange rates.
• We continued to invest in data, technology and new products through capital expenditure, which represented 8% of total revenue. We plan to sustain strong levels of investment to support our growth, and for FY23 we expect capital expenditure to represent circa 9% of total revenue.

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• We invested US$781m through acquisitions and US$32m of investments in support of our strategic initiatives. These investments included:
• The acquisitions of Emptech and the trade and assets of Tax Credit Co., as part of the expansion of our income verification business in North America. After the period end, we also completed the acquisition of CIC Plus.
• The acquisition of Gabi, to extend our North America insurance marketplace.
• In Latin America, we acquired Holding Veloz Investimentos e Participações S.A. (PagueVeloz), a digital payments FinTech in Brazil which will form part of our online debt resolution proposition, Limpa Nome. We acquired a majority stake in Sinacofi Buró, a leading credit bureau in Chile, and we have also signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in APC Buró in Panama. After the period end, we signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in MOVA Sociedade de Empréstimo entre Pessoas S.A. (MOVA), a leading credit technology FinTech in Brazil.
• We are announcing a second interim dividend of 35.75 US cents per share, up 10%. This will be paid on 22 July 2022 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 24 June 2022.
• We have completed our FY22 share repurchase programme for a net cash consideration of US$149m, which offsets deliveries under employee share plans. We have also announced that we will commence a net US$175m share repurchase programme in FY23, which will again mainly offset deliveries under employee share plans.
• During the year we redeemed our £400m 3.50% Euronotes due October 2021. We undertook a bond issue totalling €500m (US$555m) in February 2022. Our bonds, net of derivatives, totalled US$3.9bn as at 31 March 2022 and had an average remaining tenor of six years. Undrawn committed bank borrowing facilities were US$2.6bn as at 31 March 2022 (2021: US$2.7bn).
• As at 31 March 2022, Net debt to Benchmark EBITDA was 1.9x, compared to our target leverage range of 2.0-2.5x. Following changes in market adoption of IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ our definition of Net debt has been updated to include lease obligations.

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Other financial developments

Benchmark PBT was US$1,535m, up 22% at constant currency and 21% at actual rates, after lower Benchmark net interest expense of US$110m (2021: US$121m). Benchmark net finance costs decreased by US$11m, reflecting a reduction in our average funding cost from debt refinancing. For FY23, we expect net interest expense to be around US$120-125m.

The Benchmark tax rate was 25.7% (2021: 25.9%). For FY23, we expect a rate of around 26%, taking into account expected profit mix for the year.

Our Benchmark EPS was 124.5 US cents, an increase of 21% at both constant and actual exchange rates. The weighted average number of ordinary shares (WANOS) increased to 914m (2021: 910m), following issuance in the previous year. For FY23, we expect WANOS of circa 914m.

Benchmark operating cash flow increased by 22% at actual rates to US$1.8bn and our cash flow conversion was 109% (2021: 106%). The increase is due to the mix of growth, strong control of working capital and some phasing.

Foreign exchange translation was neutral to Benchmark EPS in the year. For FY23, we expect a circa -1% impact on revenue, flat on Benchmark EBIT and circa +40 basis points on Benchmark EBIT margin, assuming recent foreign exchange rates prevail.

Since 31 March 2022, we have completed three acquisitions for cash consideration of US$221m, and signed an agreement for one further acquisition for US$8m that is subject to regulatory approval.

Outlook

For the year ahead, we expect organic revenue growth in the range of 7-9%, with modest margin improvement at constant exchange rates, supported by continuing investment behind the execution of our strategy. While we are closely monitoring the global macroeconomic trends, we are confident in our strong track record of robust and resilient performance through the economic cycle.