RELX Plc

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 the first half, and we made further operational and strategic progress. Underlying revenue growth was 7%. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 10%. Adjusted earnings per share growth was 10% at constant currency. And we have announced a 7% increase in the pound sterling interim dividend. All four business areas continue to perform well. And on this chart, you can also see the relative sizes of the segments within each business area. In risk, underlying revenue growth was 8%, and underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 9%. Strong growth continues to be driven across segments by our deeply embedded AI-enabled analytics and decision tools, with 90% of divisional revenue now coming from machine-to-machine interactions. In business services, which represents around 45% of divisional revenue, growth continues to be driven by financial crime compliance and digital fraud and identity solutions, with new sales strengthening further. In insurance, which represents just under 40% of divisional revenue, growth was driven by further expansion of solution sets across markets, continued positive market factors, and new sales. In specialized industry data services, which represents just over 10% of divisional revenue, growth was led by commodity intelligence and aviation. Going forward, We expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In STM, underlying revenue growth was 4%. Development of analytics continued to drive the ongoing shift in business mix towards higher growth segments. This business mix shift accelerated in the first half. A further improvement in the electronic revenue growth rate was offset by the remaining print revenue shrinking roughly twice as fast as usual. In databases, tools, electronic reference, and corporate primary research, which together represent around 45% of divisional revenue, growth was driven by further development and rollout of higher value of ad analytics and decision tools. primary research academic and government segments, which also represent around 45% of divisional revenue, continue to be driven by volume growth. The number of articles submitted grew very strongly by over 20% across the portfolio so far this year, and the number of articles published grew by 15%. Going forward, we expect continued good underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth slightly exceeding underlying revenue growth. In legal, underlying revenue growth improved further to 7%, up from 6% last year, driven by the continued shift in business mix towards higher valued legal analytics. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth was ahead of underlying revenue growth at 9%, as we continue to manage cost growth below revenue growth. In law firm and corporate markets, which account for over 60% of divisional revenue, Lexus Plus, our integrated analytics offering leveraging extractive AI, continues to perform well. the rollout of Lexis Plus AI, our new platform leveraging generative AI is making good progress. During the first half, we've continued to update and extend functionality in the U.S. and launched in international markets. Going forward, we expect continued strong underlying revenue growth with underlying adjusted operating profit growth exceeding underlying revenue growth. Exhibitions delivered online revenue growth of 16%, reflecting the improved growth profile of our event portfolio and the favorable comparison with the early part of the prior year. We have continued to make good progress with our growing range of value enhancing digital tools and the improvement in profitability reflects the structurally lower cost base. Going forward, We expect strong underlying revenue growth with an improvement in adjusted operating margin over the prior full year. Our strategic direction is unchanged. Our improving long-term growth trajectory continues to be driven by the ongoing shift in business mix towards higher growth analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers. We develop and deploy these tools across the company by leveraging deep customer understanding to combine leading content and data sets with powerful artificial intelligence and other technologies. This has been a key driver of the evolution of our business for well over a decade and will remain a key driver of customer value and growth in our business for many years to come. Our growth objectives are for risk to sustain strong long-term growth in the current range, for both STM and legal to continue on the improving growth trajectory, and for exhibitions to continue on the improved long-term growth profile. When combined with our strategy of driving continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth, The result is continued strong earnings growth with improving returns. I will now hand over to Nick Floss, our CFO, who will talk you through our results in more detail. I will be back afterwards for a quick wrap-up and Q&A.

Thank you, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Let me start by providing more detail on the group financials. As Eric said, underlying revenue growth was 7%, with underlying adjusted operating profit growth ahead of that at 10%. As a result, the adjusted operating margin improved by just over one percentage point to 34.1%. The improved operating result flowed through to adjusted earnings per share, which at constant currency also increased by 10%. Cash conversion was again strong at 95%, and leverage was 2.0 times unchanged from the year end. Given the strong overall performance, we have been able to increase the interim dividend by 7% to 18.2 pence per share. We spent 61 million pounds on two acquisitions in the first half, and we deployed 700 million pounds out of the planned 1 billion for the share buyback this year. Looking at revenue, you can see here the drivers of the overall 7% underlying growth. Continued strong growth in risk, sustained growth in SDM, another pickup in growth in legal, and strong growth in exhibitions. Electronic revenue, representing 84% of the group total, saw 7% underlying growth, with the strong growth in face-to-face activity offsetting the higher-than-usual print decline. Total revenue growth of constant currencies for the group was also 7%, after some portfolio effects in risk, STM, and legal, and after cycling and timing, as well as portfolio effects in exhibitions. In sterling, total revenue growth was 3%, impacted by the comparative strength of sterling relative to H1 last year. Here you can see the 10% underlying growth in group-adjusted operating profit. We continue to manage costs to keep cost growth below revenue growth in each business area. As a result, risk, STM and legal each delivered underlying growth in AOP ahead of underlying revenue growth. Exhibition's underlying AOP growth was more than double its revenue growth. Overall portfolio effects were net neutral, leaving total AOP growth in constant currency also at 10%. There was a similar currency effect on profit as there was on revenue, giving AOP growth in sterling a 7%. With profit growth ahead of revenue growth, margins improved across the board, driving the overall improvement of 1.1% to 34.1%. Margins were up by 30 and 40 basis points respectively in STM and legal, and up by 60 basis points in risk, where there was some additional help from portfolio changes. Exhibitions margins are now well ahead of the levels from 2018 and 2019, with a 37.1% for this period, reflecting the normal historical bias to higher margins in the first half of the year. Turning to the group adjusted income statement, you can see the underlying growth of 7% in revenue and 10% in operating profit. The interest expense was largely unchanged, with higher average debt offset by a fractionally lower effective interest rate. That left profit before tax up 11% at constant currency and up 7% in sterling. The effective tax rate in the first half was 23%, up from the prior year, which had the benefit of some non-recurring tax credits. Net profit was up 8% at constant currency and up 4% in sterling to just over 1.1 billion. With the lower share count as a result of the share buyback program, adjusted earnings per share were up 10% at constant currency and up 6% in sterling to 59.5 pence. In terms of cash flow, cash conversion was 95%, in line with the same period last year. EBITDA was over $1.8 billion, and capex was $233 million, equating to 5% of revenue. After interest and tax, total free cash flow for the first half was just over $1 billion. And here's how we deployed that free cash flow. In the first half, we completed two small acquisitions for total consideration of $61 million, with three small disposals for a similar aggregate amount. Last week, meaning it was in the second half, of course, we completed the acquisition of Henchmen. Henchmen is a legal technology business which will give us a leading capability to integrate our generative AI solutions with law firms' internal document management systems. Dividend payments in the first half were £782 million, being last year's final dividend. As I said earlier, we completed £700 million of the 2024 Share Buyback Programme in the first half. We have deployed a further $50 million on the buyback already in July. That leaves $250 million of the program to be completed in the remainder of the year. Net debt at 30 June 2024 was just under $7 billion. Including pensions, the ratio of net debt to EBITDA, calculated in US dollars, was 2.0 times the same as last year end and down from 2.2 times 12 months before. With that, I will hand you back to Eric.

Thank you, Nick. Just to summarize what we have covered this morning. In the first half of 2024, we delivered strong financial results and we made further operational and strategic progress. The improving long-term growth trajectory continues to be driven by the ongoing shift in our business mix towards higher growth, higher value analytics and decision tools. Going forward, we continue to see positive momentum across the group, and we expect another year of strong underlying revenue growth in revenue and adjusted operating profit, as well as strong growth in adjusted earnings per share on a constant currency basis. And with that, I think we're ready to go to questions.