Experian 1st Half Performance Was Resilient, Driven by North America, Brazil

By Sabela Ojea

Experian PLC on Tuesday reported a fall in pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2021 and said that its performance for the period was resilient, marked by organic revenue growth at the top end of its guidance for the second quarter.

The FTSE 100 credit-reporting agency posted a pretax profit of $458 million for the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with $480 million for the same period a year earlier.

Benchmark earnings before interest and taxes decreased to $648 million from $670 million for the year-earlier period. Benchmark EBIT in North America--the company's core region--increased to $610 million from the previous $544 million.

Revenue declined slightly to $2.49 billion from $2.50 billion. The company said that the standout performance across the group was the consumer services division, which has nearly 100 million free memberships.

"The drivers of growth stemmed largely from North America and Brazil which offset COVID-19 related declines in other territories. For the third quarter we expect organic revenue growth in the range of 3% to 5%," Chief Executive Brian Cassin said.

Write to Sabela Ojea at [e-mail]; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 17, 2020 02:35 ET (07:35 GMT)

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