Experian plc

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Experience Third Quarter Trading Update webcast and conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. And I'd like to hand the conference over to your first speaker, Mr. Brian Kesson, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks very much. Hello, everybody, and welcome to our Q3 Trading Update call. I'm here, as usual, with Lloyd, who will take you through the financial performance after my opening remarks. We've delivered another strong performance in Q3, reflecting continued execution against our strategy. Total Q3 revenue growth was 12% at actual rates and 10% at constant currencies, with organic revenue growth of 8%. And this continues the momentum that we saw on the first half and puts us on track against the FY26 guidance that we set out just a few weeks ago. The overall picture is consistent with when we spoke in November. North America continues to perform strongly. And in Brazil, we saw a modest improvement in the quarterly trajectory, as we had expected. Organic revenue growth was 10% in North America, 6% in Latin America, 3% in the UK and I, and 3% in EMEA Asia Pacific. And by segments, B2B organic revenue growth was 7%, with good contributions from both financial services and verticals. Globally, consumer services delivered 10% growth. Turning to the regional highlights, starting with North America, the momentum remains very strong, driven by client expansions. consistently improving lender activity and continued growth in consumer services. Regional organic revenue growth was 10%, including a strong B2B performance, which was up 11%. In financial services, excluding mortgage, we delivered a strong organic revenue growth, reflecting key client wins and increasing adoption of new products across our client base. Client activity levels continue to improve. feeding through to higher volumes for unsecured credit and providing support and backdrop for new product adoption. And Clarity was also a very positive contributor in the quarter. We're very encouraged by client response to new products such as cash flow scores and analytics, and we see emerging opportunities for the Ascend fraud sandbox in FY in 2026. Alongside this, we are progressing our plans to embed AI more deeply across our platforms, including through the introduction of new experience systems within the Ascend platform and enhanced model risk management features. And we have a strong pipeline of new product development underway with further introductions around this quarter, and we expect innovation activity to remain high as we move into next year. In mortgage, our focus remains on making home ownership more accessible and affordable to the American people. The introduction of VantageScore into the performing mortgage market is an important step in expanding credit access to bring millions more consumers into the scorable population. Our approach is to provide both VantageScore and FICO on every mortgage transaction so that lenders can choose which score suits their needs. VantageScore is also available in our Ascend analytical sandbox for testing purposes, and we expect AppPlate to build over time, particularly given the cost savings available to lenders and ultimately consumers. Across verticals, we delivered another strong quarter led by Automotive, supported by widening distribution for our auto-check vehicle history reports and by health, which continues to benefit from client expansions and strong market adoption of our AI-led patient access curator proposition. In marketing services, our audited acquisition continues to perform well. Consumer services also delivered a strong performance of 8%, and our focus remains on delivering ever more personalized experiences by leveraging the depth of our data assets, increasingly supported by Eva, our agentic AI assistant. Marketplace was the primary driver of growth in the quarter, reflecting continued expansion in credit and insurance, alongside the ongoing growth of our free membership base. In Latin America, organic revenue growth was 6%. While B2B revenues were flat on an organic basis, we've made good progress across key areas of strategic focus. Economic conditions in Brazil remain similar to those we discussed in November, with interest rates now peaking at around 15%, and with elevated levels of consumer indebtedness, which do continue to weigh on core lending activity. The integration of ClearSale has progressed smoothly. We are combining our capabilities across the portfolio. This has been well received by clients, supporting new business opportunities. And progress in the SME segment has also been very good. Consumer services delivered a very strong quarter, with 23% organic revenue growth. Growth was broad-based, reflecting our strategy to diversify and expand the range of services available on the platform. We added new credit products to the marketplace, including private payroll loans, driving increased contributions from the credit marketplace, and the contribution from premium services also continues to expand. This combined with another strong quarter for Limp and Nome following a highly successful Q3 credit fair, and as we continue to support consumers to renegotiate debts and consolidate loans. In the UK, organic revenue growth was 3%, with B2B flat on an organic basis and strong consumer services momentum, which grew 14%. While the overall economic environment remains soft, we have made steady progress in B2B. More clients are going live on the Ascend platform, and we've seen a somewhat improved backdrop for credit acquisition and origination, supported by increased adoption of the Ascend Sandbox. There remains more work to do across the broader B2B portfolio, but the trajectory is gradually improving. Consumer services performance in the UK was very strong. Growth was led by the credit marketplace, with premium services also contributing positively. We introduced a new 1250 score in December, which has been well received, with members engaging more actively as they explore its enhanced features. In the Asia-Pacific, organic revenue growth was 3%, which was against a strong prior year comparative. Our focus on new product introductions is paying off. We have a strong pipeline and some very encouraging performances across the region. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Lloyd.

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. As you've seen, we delivered good growth in Q3, in line with our expectations, and in line with Q2 when adjusting for the one-time volume catch-up. in the North American consumer services business that we had in Q2. Total revenue growth was a very strong 12%, with constant currency revenue growth at 10% and acquisitions adding 2% to growth. Organic revenue growth was 8%, led by North America business, growing at 10%. Organically, B2B globally grew at 7%, while consumer services globally delivered 10% growth. Turning to the performance by region and beginning with North America, where we delivered strong organic revenue growth of 10%, with 11% in B2B and 8% in consumer services. Within B2B, financial services excluding mortgage grew 9% in the quarter, up from 8% in Q2. As Brian mentioned, credit conditions continue to improve with good underlying client activity. Clarity had another strong quarter, and we see strong commercial momentum in cash flow. Mortgage revenue grew 45% on flattish volume, and this takes total financial services growth to 13%. Verticals in North America grew 8%, with auto and health continuing to grow mid-teens and double-digit respectively, and marketing services growing modestly. Auto grew well across our credit, vehicle history, and value recovery products, while health was supported by our claims management product, and ongoing adoption of Patient Access Curator, our AI-powered registration solution. Consumer services grew 8% for the quarter, and as a reminder, Q2 was boosted by the one-time volume catch-up in insurance marketplace. Marketplace grew strongly double-digit in Q3, reflecting broad growth across credit cards, personal loans, and insurance. Subscription membership revenue grew modestly, reflecting the strong prior year growth comparatives. Moving on to Latin America, which grew 6% organically, B2B was flat, while consumer services delivered very strong growth at 23%. In B2B, we saw good performance in our fraud and ID offerings, but as expected, the macroeconomic climate continued to weigh on credit activity, although we did see an uptick in the build of pipeline. Consumer services grew very strongly, with growth of 23%. And we saw growth across all products with a very strong performance in premium and Limpinome, which hosted its fair in December. Turning to the UK and I, which grew 3% organically. B2B was in line with the prior year, but on an improving trend across the quarters this year. Consumer services delivered another double-digit organic revenue growth of 14%, with strong growth in our marketplace business. And we drove strong growth across both credit cards and personal loans, supported by higher customer engagement, and expanding lender supply from the product launches that Brian mentioned. And on to near Asia Pacific, which grew 3%, despite the lapping of large one-off license recognition in Australia in the prior year, and good progress across most of the other markets. And finally, as you've seen, all of our guidance for the full year remains unchanged from the upgraded guidance that we gave at the half year in November. So, with that, I'll hand you back to Brian.