Experian 2009 Annual Report Download - page 11

9Experian Annual Report 2009
Introduction
2 – 7
Business review Chief Executive’s review
Governance 44 – 72
Financial statements 73 – 148
9
Our strategic focus increasingly
is on nurturing, building and
harvesting growth opportunities
for our business
Focus on data and analytics
Over the past year, Experian has further
extended its industry-leading market
position. Innovation is our lifeblood,
and each year we fund a series of
new initiatives, as well as upgrading
products to keep our portfolio fresh and
vital. The proportion of Group revenue
arising from products developed in the
past ve years has steadily trended
upwards and now stands at over 20%.
Over the coming year, we will fund a
number of new initiatives organically,
including identity theft management
tools within Consumer Direct;
marketing and analytical product
extensions in Latin America and Asia
Pacic; and value-added products in
North America.
We are also highly focused on
extending our geographic footprint. We
are very pleased to have been awarded a
provisional licence to operate a bureau
in India, and over the next year we will
focus on establishing our joint venture
company and gathering data ahead of
launch. We are also investing in new
data sources to support the migration
of our Spanish bureau to a positive data
market and in new bureaux investments
in Morocco and Eastern Europe.
Drive protable growth
The majority of our growth today stems
from more established investments
and our aim is to sustain this growth.
Within our B2B businesses we aim to
be a strategic partner to our clients,
delivering value-added products,
through strong sales execution,
enhanced client experience and awless
delivery. Across our B2C operations,
our strategy is to enhance the consumer
experience and deliver greater value,
while building brand equity.
We continue to see signicant
opportunity for growth across:
– new geographies, such as Latin
America, where the addressable
market for both credit risk
management and high return on
investment (‘RoI’) marketing is large
and under-penetrated;
– new vertical markets, where we have
increased our investment in UK
public sector, utilities, US healthcare
payments and capital markets;
– new products, for example in scoring,
risk management, fraud prevention,
contact data management and
customer segmentation tools.
Our success here will help offset
short-term headwinds from
nancial services consolidation and
recessionary market conditions.
Optimise capital efciency
We remain committed to maintaining
a prudent but efcient balance
sheet. Net debt at the end of the
year was US$2,110m, after funding
capital expenditure of US$305m and
acquisition spend of US$179m.
Our cash ow is typically second-half
weighted and we expect net debt to
remain at a similar level for the next
six months, excluding any acquisition
activity.
Dividend
For the year ended 31 March 2009, we
have announced a second interim
dividend of 13.25 US cents per share.
This gives a full-year dividend of 20.00
US cents per share, up 8%, and 3.1
times covered by Benchmark EPS. The
second interim dividend will be paid
on 24 July 2009 to shareholders on the
register at the close of business on 26
June 2009.
Our people
This has been a difcult year, one of
the most challenging in our history.
The consistency and strength of our
performance reects the commitment
and hard work of our people, and I
would like to take this opportunity
to thank all our employees for their
dedication, support and outstanding
accomplishments over the past year.