Experian plc

Experian said FY26 organic revenue growth was 8% for the year and 9% in Q4. Revenue from ongoing activities increased 13% at actual rates and 11% at constant rates; Benchmark EBIT from ongoing activities grew 15% at actual rates and 13% at constant rates to over $2.4 billion; Benchmark EBIT margin was 28.6%; and Benchmark EPS rose 15% at actual rates and 13% at constant rates. Benchmark operating cash flow was over $2.2 billion, ROCE was 17.2%, and year-end net debt to Benchmark EBITDA was 1.7x. For FY27, management guided to total reported revenue growth of 8% to 11%, organic revenue growth of 6% to 8%, Benchmark EBIT margin progression of 50 bps at constant exchange rates, net interest of $250 million to $260 million, a Benchmark tax rate around 26%, CapEx around 8% of revenue, and Benchmark operating cash flow conversion above 90%. They also expect acquired businesses already completed to add around 1 percentage point to FY27 revenue growth.

Brian Cassin framed FY26 as a record year and said Experian has made strong strategic progress while staying disciplined on capital. He emphasized client renewals, platform expansion, cloud migration completion in North America and Brazil, and AI as a growth accelerator rather than a threat. He repeatedly pointed to a durable advantage from trusted data, embedded workflows, and the combination of B2B and B2C assets, and said the company is well positioned for the next phase of growth.

Lloyd Pitchford focused on the financial delivery and the mechanics behind margin and cash improvement. He highlighted Benchmark EBIT above $2.4 billion, Benchmark EBIT margin of 28.6%, Benchmark operating cash flow above $2.2 billion, and leverage of 1.7x, while noting roughly half of the $1 billion buyback announced in January had been completed by March 31. He said labor costs as a percentage of revenue have fallen by over 300 bps over two years, dual-run cloud costs peaked in FY26 and should trend down from FY27, and FY27 margin expansion should come from operating leverage, acquisition integration, lower dual-run costs and consumer scaling, partially offset by FICO royalty pass-through and breach contract wind-downs.

Analysts pressed on Latin America, AI disruption, VantageScore/FICO, marketplace trends, mortgage, and margin drivers. Management said LatAm consumer should keep growing at about 20% and that B2B should rebound toward around double-digit growth, while U.S. marketplace softness in cards was offset by strength in personal loans and stable recent trends. On AI and software disruption, Brian said the call-to-action is more opportunity than threat, pointing to stronger renewals, broader use of Ascend products, and new distribution through OpenAI, Snap, ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini pilot, ServiceNow, and other LLM-related channels. On mortgage, Lloyd said FY27 assumptions do not include structural market changes, and Brian said they are engaged with FHFA while seeing roughly half of the top 15 lenders accessing VantageScore 4 through Score Choice Bundle.