Experian 2009 Annual Report Download - page 4

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2Experian Annual Report 2009
Chairman’s statement
Introduction
A major focus for us during the year
was to address the new priorities
of our nancial services clients,
particularly in the US and UK,
where the emphasis has been on
strengthening risk management
and collections activities across
their organisations. We responded
by intensifying our client education
efforts, reallocating sales resource
and quickly bringing to market a wide
range of countercyclical products
to satisfy the entire range of client
needs. These products remain in
high demand and have secured
us a number of multi-country
client contracts.
Experian’s Consumer Direct
business, which enables consumers
to monitor their personal credit les,
grew strongly in both the US and
UK as consumers chose to actively
manage their credit status. Our
increased investment in consumer
marketing, the growing contribution
from afnity partners, such as
American Express and Discover,
and demand for new identity theft
protection products all contributed
to Experian extending its lead in this
growing market.
Outside of nancial services, we
continued to diversify by taking our
core data and analytics products into
markets such as the public sector,
healthcare and telecommunications.
We also expanded our global
footprint, winning substantial
contracts in Eastern Europe and Asia
Pacic, and opening a new credit
bureau in Morocco. In Latin America,
where we signicantly increased
our presence during 2007 with the
acquisition of Serasa, our business
went from strength to strength,
meeting the need for more advanced
credit reference and customer
management products.
Experian’s diverse and well
balanced business model has been
a major factor in our ability to keep
on growing through the current
economic cycle. However, we should
also recognise the outstanding
efforts of the management team
in successfully redirecting our
business towards areas of greatest
need and opportunity, while
continuing to reduce costs across
the business. Our people have
responded superbly to the
challenge and I thank them all for
their tremendous co-operation
and energy.
Since the year end, Experian’s
board has been strengthened by
the appointment of Chris Callero
as an executive director. Chris is
the President and Chief Operating
Ofcer for Experian and has played
a central role in Experian’s success,
particularly in North and Latin
America, since joining the Group
in 2002. Sean FitzPatrick stood
down as a non-executive director
in December 2008 and we are very
grateful for the valuable contribution
he made to our business.
Despite the difcult market
conditions, corporate responsibility
remained a priority for Experian
during the year and we considerably
widened the scope of our
CR reporting to include the
EMEA/Asia Pacic region for the
rst time. We also provided greater
focus for our global community
programme by concentrating on
projects that provide nancial
education to vulnerable people and
that encourage entrepreneurial
skills combined with wise nancial
planning. In the UK, we increased
the level of employee volunteering
and won two awards from Business
in the Community. Overall,
notwithstanding the economic
pressures and cost saving
initiatives, the Group gave more
to our communities than in any
previous year.
Looking ahead, it is clear that the
economic environment will remain
challenging for some time to come.
Experian has, however, strengthened
its overall market position this
year, reduced its operating costs
and continued to invest in new
opportunities for growth, which
leaves us well placed as conditions
improve. In the meantime, we
remain committed to our successful
strategy of focusing on data and
analytics, driving protable growth
and optimising capital efciency.
Experian delivered another strong performance this year against
a backdrop of exceptionally challenging market conditions. It is an
achievement that clearly demonstrates the resilience of Experian’s
core business and the benets we derive from our broad portfolio
of capabilities, but it has also shown just how quickly the Group can
adapt to changing circumstances.
John Peace
Chairman