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The call emphasizes a strong, record financial year with broad-based revenue growth, margin expansion, robust cash generation, significant strategic progress on cloud migration, AI initiatives and platform adoption, and active capital returns. Near-term headwinds include the wind-down of legacy data breach contracts, mortgage volume sensitivity, short-term acquisition and transition-related margin pressures, and some regional B2B softness. Overall, positives around execution, AI-led TAM expansion, platform momentum and capital discipline materially outweigh the manageable challenges highlighted.
Experian guided FY'27 to total reported revenue growth of 8–11% (organic 6–8%, with completed acquisitions contributing ~1 percentage point) and another year of double‑digit Benchmark EPS growth, with Benchmark EBIT margin progression of ~50 basis points at constant exchange rates. Management expects foreign‑exchange to be a 1–2% benefit to revenue and EBIT, net interest of $250–260m, a Benchmark tax rate of ~26%, CapEx of about 8% of revenue, and Benchmark operating cash‑flow conversion above 90%. Weighted average number of shares is expected to be 880–885m during the year with a closing share count around 870m as the company executes a further $1bn buyback (adding to $1bn announced in January); guidance starts around the middle of the ranges and reflects headwinds from FICO mortgage royalties and the wind‑down of two large breach contracts.
FY'26 was a record year: revenue from ongoing activities up 13% at actual rates (11% constant) with organic revenue growth of 8% for the year (9% in Q4). Benchmark EBIT grew 15% (13% constant) to over $2.4bn and Benchmark EPS rose 15% (13% constant).
Benchmark EBIT margin increased to 28.6% with organic constant-currency margin expansion of c.90 basis points in FY'26 (outperforming medium-term guidance). Labor costs as a percentage of revenue fell by over 300 basis points over two years due to productivity gains and AI tooling.
Benchmark operating cash flow > $2.2bn, funds from operations ~$2.3bn, sustained cash conversion above 90%. ROCE improved to 17.2%. Net debt / Benchmark EBITDA ended at 1.7x. Board increased the full-year dividend by 11% (total $0.6925) and announced an additional $1bn share buyback (bringing announced buybacks to $2bn).
Cloud migration targets for North America and Brazil achieved; dual-run costs peaked in FY'26 and are expected to decline, enabling more investment. CapEx to sales was 8.6% and is expected to trend toward the long-term ~7% target (FY'27 guidance ~8%).
Company identified over $15bn of incremental TAM driven by generative AI use cases. Early AI deployment driving coder productivity gains (10–15% average, isolated cases >30%) and reduced labor cost intensity; tangible AI-led products already contributing (e.g., Patient Access Curator).
New products contributed $2bn of revenue. Ascend platform adoption increasing: 37 products and >2,300 client solutions on Ascend; platform driving renewals, longer contract terms and cross-sell. Partnerships include ServiceNow and LLM integrations (OpenAI, Google pilot participation).
Consumer Services membership expanded to over 215 million globally; North America Consumer Services revenue > $1.7bn with marketplace up >20% for the year (personal loans particularly strong). Consumer Services in Latin America grew ~23% for FY'26 and reached >$300m annual revenue.
North America organic revenue up 10% (revenue ~$5.6bn), Financial Services up 14% (ex-mortgage core FS growth ~9–10%), mortgage revenue up ~45% for the year, Automotive +13% organic, Healthcare (Patient Access Curator) +9%. Latin America finished strong with Q4 organic growth of 17%.
Strategic acquisitions (ClearSale, AtData, Own Up, Compensit, KYC360, Konfir) expanded fraud, identity, mortgage and email intelligence assets (AtData adds 10bn+ email addresses). Completed deals expected to add ~1 percentage point to FY'27 revenue.
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Experian Preliminary Results for the Year Ended 31st March 2026 Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Brian Cassin, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Hello, everybody, and welcome to our FY '26 results presentation. I'm joined by Lloyd, who will run through the financials after my initial overview, and then we'll open up for Q&A. FY '26 was a strong year for Experian, a record year, in fact, where we delivered on our Medium-Term Framework. We have many important client wins and renewals and we made really good strategic progress whilst remaining disciplined on capital. And that leaves us well positioned as we move into the new financial year. Financially, it was an excellent year. Organic revenue came in at the top of our range of expectations with margins ahead.
And just as importantly, this is our second year of delivery against the Medium-Term Framework demonstrating consistent execution against our objectives. Organic revenue growth for the year was 8%, rising to 9% in Q4. Margins expanded by 60 basis points at constant currency, ahead of our 30 to 50 basis points guidance. Enhanced productivity was part of that alongside the growing scale of our product platforms. We also made substantial progress in our cloud migration, achieving the targets we set out for North America and Brazil. We now have a more agile organization, fully cl...