RELX 1st Half Net Profit Rose 15% Despite Organic Revenue Slowdown

   By Adria Calatayud 
 

RELX PLC (REL.LN) said Thursday that first-half net profit rose 15% despite a slowdown in organic revenue growth, and backed its guidance for the full year.

The information and analytics company made a net profit of 779 million pounds ($971.3 million) for the first six months of 2019 compared with GBP678 million in the year-earlier period.

The company behind medical journal the Lancet and the London Book Fair said revenue rose to GBP3.89 billion from GBP3.65 billion. On an underlying basis, first-half revenue was up 3%, RELX said. For 2018 as a whole, RELX's underlying revenue grew 4%.

Adjusted operating profit rose to GBP1.24 billion in the first half from GBP1.15 billion a year earlier, the company said. Adjusted earnings per share grew 8% at constant currency to 45.9 pence.

The board declared an interim dividend of 13.6 pence a share, up from 12.4 pence a share a year earlier.

RELX said it continues to expect 2019 to be another year of underlying growth in revenue and in adjusted operating profit, together with growth in adjusted earnings per share on a constant currency basis. Key business trends are in line with last year, the company said.

Write to Adria Calatayud at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2019 02:35 ET (06:35 GMT)

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