RELX Backs 2019 View After Nine-Month Underlying Revenue Rose 4%

By Anthony O. Goriainoff

RELX PLC (REL.LN) said on Thursday that overall underlying revenue for the first nine months of 2019 rose 4%, and backed its guidance for the year.

The Anglo-Dutch professional-information and events group said that for the first nine months, underlying revenue--a measure which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--grew 1% at its scientific, technical and medical division--the company's largest segment. The company said it expects another year of modest underlying revenue growth in this division.

RELX said that underlying revenue in risk and business analytics rose 7%, in legal it rose 2% and for its exhibitions unit it grew by 6%, in the period.

The company behind medical journal the Lancet and the London Book Fair said that to date it has completed share buybacks worth 550 million pounds ($708.3 million) of the previously announced GBP600 million, and plans to deploy the remainder by year end.

The company didn't provide any profit or revenue figures for the year. However adjusted pretax profit consensus is GBP2.31 billion, taken from FactSet and based on the forecasts of nine analysts, compared with GBP2.15 billion the year before. Revenue consensus is GBP7.9 billion, also taken from FactSet and based on 17 analysts' forecasts, compared with GBP7.49 billion in 2018.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2019 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)

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