Experian 2016 Annual Report Download - page 28

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Introduction
Chief Executive’s review
“ We have made significant progress against our strategic
objectives over the past year. We have returned Experian to
organic revenue growth within our target range and driven
greater efficiencies in our business, whilst rigorously
applying our robust capital framework.”
We have made significant progress
against our strategic objectives over the
past year. We delivered organic revenue
growth within our mid single-digit target
range and enhanced the efficiency of
our business, whilst rigorously applying
our robust capital framework. As we
look forward, we’re investing in a range
of initiatives to enable us to deliver good
growth consistently.
Highlights this year include:
• We made significant progress on the
five strategic priorities we outlined
last year, having:
– backed a range of new organic
investments in health, business
information, decisioning software,
fraud prevention and in other areas;
– made good progress in
repositioning our North America
Consumer Services business
and returning it to growth in the
second half year;
– taken steps to enhance our
operating model to fully leverage
synergies between businesses and
drive greater efficiencies;
– sold six non-core activities; and
– returned US$972m in total to
shareholders through dividends
and net share purchases.
• We delivered organic revenue growth
of 5% for the year, with sequential
improvement throughout the year
(4% in the first half year and 6% in
the second). This reflected strong
growth in Credit Services and
Decision Analytics and improved
trends in North America Consumer
Services. Foreign exchange effects
were a significant headwind and total
revenue from continuing activities
declined by 4% as a result.
• We maintained margins at constant
currency. We benefited from positive
operating leverage, counterbalanced
by organic investment initiatives.
Foreign exchange was a significant
headwind, causing the EBIT margin
to decline overall to 26.7% at
actual rates.
• After the year-end we announced
a definitive agreement to acquire
CSIdentity Corporation (‘CSID’), a
leading provider of consumer identity
management and fraud detection
services, further accelerating the
execution of our Consumer Services
strategy and enabling us to address
a broader spectrum of the consumer
market. The acquisition is subject to
Hart-Scott-Rodino regulatory approval
in the USA and is expected to
complete by the end of September.
Regional highlights
North America
We returned to growth in North America
during the year, with organic revenue up 3%.
Credit Services performed strongly.
Lenders have continued to engage
actively in credit marketing and new
underwriting as consumer confidence
has remained stable. This has supported
strong volume growth in our business.
We have also secured a number of
sizeable wins from financial services
clients by taking a ‘One Experian’
approach, integrating data, analytics,
software and expertise from across
multiple business activities.
Our strategy of diversifying and building
out specialised businesses in new
vertical markets continues to produce
strong results. Our health business is
developing very well. We’re building on
our market-leading position in revenue-
cycle management, where we help
healthcare providers to get paid. We see
potential to expand into adjacencies, for
example we’re introducing services to
prevent identity and payment fraud.
Brian Cassin Chief Executive Officer
Strategic report •Chief Executive’s review