Experian 2007 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2007 Experian annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 138

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138

12 | Experian Annual Report 2007
Chairman’s statement
Experian has made a good start in its
new life as an independent company.
The demerger last October was well
received by shareholders, while the
£800m of new equity that we raised
from investors will provide the
flexibility to fund future growth
opportunities. Since then, we have
made progress operationally and
strategically, while delivering a fifth
consecutive year of double-digit
revenue and profit growth.
Your Board has announced a dividend of 11.5 cents,
giving a full-year dividend of 17 cents.
At the time of demerger, we talked about Experian’s
strategy for achieving long-term, sustainable growth. Our
aim is to continue to deliver mid to high single-digit
organic sales growth each year and to accelerate this
through complementary acquisitions. We also remain
firmly focused on tight cost control throughout our
operations, in order to reinvest the savings in new
products and new markets, while maintaining or
improving our profit margin.
I am pleased to say that we successfully harnessed all our
key drivers of growth this year. For example, we won
significant new contracts with clients such as Bank of
America, HSBC and GE Money. We developed more than
20 new products, covering all areas of our business. We
strengthened our position in new market sectors, including
government, healthcare and telecommunications. We
extended our operations into other countries such as India
and Poland. And we acquired further complementary
businesses to accelerate our entry into new markets and
new product areas.
We also continued to attract and retain talented people
throughout all parts of the business. I am especially
pleased that we have been able to appoint such a strong
Board to take the Group forward. Our recent
appointments have ensured that the Board has an
excellent blend of skills and experience, gained
internationally and across a wide range of market sectors.
One of our other early actions as an independent company
was to set out explicitly our social responsibilities. These
range from ensuring that our data is protected effectively
to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We believe that
Experian’s products and services contribute strongly to a
healthy economy, by helping businesses to build successful
customer relationships and enabling consumers to make
more informed purchasing decisions.
Ultimately, Experian’s success lies in the skills and energies
of the people who work for us and I would like to
acknowledge their achievements and to thank them for
their tremendous support. In particular, I would like to
recognise the extraordinary contribution of John Saunders,
our Chief Executive of Global Operations, who has recently
retired after 24 years with the business.
I hope you will enjoy reading this first annual report from
Experian and that, like me, you will be pleased with our
progress this year.
John Peace
Chairman
22 May 2007
Introduction | Business review | Governance | Financial statements