RELX Plc

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. As you may have seen from our press release this morning, we delivered strong financial results in 2023, and we made further operational and strategic progress. Underlying revenue growth was 8%. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 13%. Adjusted earnings per share growth was 11% at constant currency. And we are proposing an 8% increase in the pound sterling full year dividend. All four business areas performed well in 2023. And on this chart, you can also see the relative sizes of the business segments within each business area. In risk, strong fundamentals continue to drive underlying revenue growth of 8% with underlying adjusted operating profit growth of 9%. In business services, which represents around 45% divisional revenue, growth continue to be driven by financial crime compliance and digital fraud and identity solutions. And we saw a strengthening in new sales in the second half. In insurance, which represents just under 40% of divisional revenue. Strong growth was driven by further expansion of solution sets across markets supported by positive market factors. Specialized industry data services, which represents just over 10% of divisional revenue, saw strong growth led by the commodity intelligence and aviation sector. Going forward, we expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In STM, further development of analytics continued to drive the ongoing shift in business mix towards higher growth segments. Underlying revenue growth was 4%, and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was also 4%, with a slight increase in adjusted operating margin. In databases, tools, and electronic reference and corporate primary research, which together represent around 45% of divisional revenue, strong growth was driven by further development of higher value-add analytics and decision tools. primary research academic and government segments, which also represent around 45% of divisional revenue, continue to be driven by strong growth in article submissions with pay-to-publish open access articles growing particularly strongly. Going forward, we expect continued good underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In legal, we saw a further improvement in underlying revenue growth to 6%, up from 5% last year, driven by the continued shift in business mix towards higher growth legal analytics. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was ahead of revenue growth at 8%. We continue to see strong growth in law firm and corporate markets, which accounts for over 60% of divisional revenue. Lexis Plus, our integrated analytics offering, has continued to see strong uptake and usage growth across customer segments. Lexis Plus AI, our new platform leveraging generative AI functionality, was launched commercially in October. The initial customer reaction has been very positive, and the rollout has started well. Going forward, we expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth exceeding underlying revenue growth.

Exhibitions delivered strong revenue growth and an improvement in profitability.

Underlying revenue growth was 30%. driven by a significant increase in face-to-face activity with average like-for-like event revenue across the portfolio ahead of pre-pandemic levels for the full year. The improvement in profitability reflects both the higher activity levels and the structurally lower cost base, with the adjusted operating margin also above pre-pandemic levels for the full year. Going forward, We expect strong underlying revenue growth with a further improvement in adjusted operating margins. Our strategic direction is unchanged. We leverage deep customer understanding to combine leading content and data sets with powerful technologies in global platforms to build increasingly sophisticated information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to professional and business customers across market segments. We have been able to develop and deploy these tools across the company by embracing artificial intelligence technologies for well over a decade. We are confident that our ability to leverage AI and other technologies as they evolve will continue to be an important driver of customer value and growth in our business for many years to come.