RELX Group, the global professional information and analytics company, reports another year of underlying growth in revenue, operating profit and earnings in 2015.
Commenting on the results, Anthony Habgood, Chairman, said:
“RELX Group continued to execute well on its financial and strategic priorities in 2015, and we are recommending a 14% increase in the full year dividend for RELX PLC and a 5% increase for RELX NV. During 2015 we implemented a number of measures that simplified our corporate structure and our share listings, increasing transparency for our shareholders.”

Chief Executive Officer, Erik Engstrom, commented:
“We achieved good underlying revenue growth in 2015, and continued to generate underlying operating profit growth ahead of revenue growth through continuous process innovation. Our financial position and cash flow profile remain strong.”

“Our number one priority remains the organic development of increasingly sophisticated information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers. In 2015 we continued to support our organic strategy with a number of small acquisitions.”

“Trends in the early part of 2016 are consistent with 2015 across our business, and we are confident that, by continuing to execute on our strategy, we will deliver another year of underlying revenue, profit, and earnings growth in 2016.”

FINANCIAL RESULTS

Revenue of £5,971m/€8,240m; underlying growth +3%: The underlying growth rate reflects continued good growth in electronic and face to face revenues (85% of the total), partially offset by continued print revenue declines.

Adjusted operating profit of £1,822m/€2,514m; underlying growth +5%: Growth expressed in sterling was +5%, and expressed in euros was +17%. The difference in growth rates reflects the sharp decline in the euro relative to sterling in 2015.

Reported operating profit: Reported operating profit, including amortisation of acquired intangible assets, was £1,497m (£1,402m) or €2,066m (€1,738m).

Interest and tax: Adjusted net interest expense was £153m (£147m) or €211m (€182m), with the £6m/€29m increase reflecting higher net borrowings and currency translation effects partly offset by a lower average interest rate. Adjusted tax was £388m (£374m) or €535m (€464m). The adjusted effective tax rate was 23.2%.

Adjusted EPS growth in constant currencies +8%: Adjusted EPS expressed in sterling was 60.5p (+7%), or €0.835 (+20%) expressed in euros. The difference in growth rates between the sterling and euro EPS reflects the movement in exchange rates.

Reported EPS: Reported EPS was 46.4p (43.0p) for RELX PLC and €0.682 (€0.568) for RELX NV.

Dividend: We are proposing a full year dividend increase of +14% to 29.7p for RELX PLC and +5% to €0.403 for RELX NV. Following the UK government announcement that dividend tax credits will be abolished, the 2015 final dividends have been equalised without any UK tax credit gross up (see page 26 for details), removing the one remaining difference between the economics of the two shares.

ROIC: Return on invested capital increased from 12.8% to 13.4% at constant currencies. At reported exchange rates, ROIC was 12.7%.

Net debt/EBITDA 2.2x on a pensions and lease adjusted basis (unadjusted 1.8x): Net debt was £3,782m/€5,144m on 31 December 2015. The adjusted cash flow conversion rate was 94% (96%), with capital expenditure as a percentage of revenues unchanged at 5%.

Portfolio development: We completed 19 small acquisitions of content, data and exhibition assets for a total consideration of £171m, and disposed of assets for £73m.

Share buybacks: In 2015 we deployed £500m on share buybacks. In 2016 we intend to deploy a total of £700m, of which £100m has already been completed.

Corporate structure simplification: In 2015 we implemented a simplification of our corporate structure, and have presented our 2015 full year results on a consolidated, rather than combined, basis. The move to consolidated accounts has no impact on any figures, except for a minor positive restatement of the reported EPS for RELX NV.

2016 OUTLOOK

Trends in the early part of 2016 are consistent with 2015 across our business, and we are confident that, by continuing to execute on our strategy, we will deliver another year of underlying revenue, profit, and earnings growth in 2016.

see and read more
http://www.relx.com/mediacentre/pressreleases/2016/Pages/relx-group-results-2015.aspx

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Issued on behalf of RELX PLC and RELX NV
25 February 2016
RELX Group announces Board changes
RELX Group announces today the following changes to the composition of its Boards, to be effective following the conclusion of the RELX NV and RELX PLC Annual General Meetings to be held on 20 and 21 April 2016 respectively.
Lisa Hook and Robert Polet will retire from the Boards. Ms Hook has served as a Non-Executive Director since April 2006 and as Senior Independent Director since April 2013. Mr Polet has served as a Non-Executive Director since April 2007.
Following Ms Hook’s retirement, Dr Wolfhart Hauser will be appointed as Senior Independent Director. Dr Hauser has served as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee since April 2013.
Carol Mills and Robert MacLeod will be appointed as Non-Executive Directors of RELX NV and RELX PLC, subject to shareholder approval at the respective Annual General Meetings. They will also be appointed as Non-Executive Directors of RELX Group plc.
Ms Mills currently chairs the board of directors and compensation committee of Xactly Corporation, a software provider of cloud-based business solutions. She also serves on the boards of directors of Ingram Micro, a global distributor of information technology products, and WhiteHat Security, a software provider of cloud-based services. Ms Mills previously served on the boards of Adobe Systems, Alaska Communications, Tekelec Corporation and Blue Coat Systems. From 2004-2006, she was executive vice president and general manager of the Infrastructure Products Group at Juniper Networks, and from 1998-2002 was CEO of Acta Technology. Prior to this, Ms Mills spent 16 years at Hewlett-Packard in a number of executive roles.
Mr MacLeod is currently chief executive of Johnson Matthey Plc, the FTSE 100 speciality chemicals company and global leader in sustainable technologies, having joined as group finance director in 2009. Since 2007 he has served as a non-executive director at Aggreko plc, the FTSE 250 provider of rental power generators, equipment and systems. He will be retiring from the Aggreko board on 28 April 2016. Prior to joining Johnson Matthey, Mr MacLeod spent five years as group finance director at WS Atkins plc, the multinational engineering consultancy group, having joined as group financial controller in 2003. After starting his career with KPMG, from 1993-2002 he held a variety of senior finance and M&A roles with Enterprise Oil plc in the UK and US.
Commenting on the changes, Anthony Habgood, Chairman said:
“On behalf of the Directors, I would like to thank Lisa and Robert for their significant contributions to the Boards over the past 10 and 9 years respectively. This has been an extraordinary period in the transformation of our Group and Lisa and Robert have played vitally important roles in that development.”
“I would like to welcome both Carol and Robert to RELX Group. With Carol’s more than 30 years in the enterprise software and technology sectors, including extensive board experience, and Robert’s considerable international experience in executive and non-executive roles in the engineering and chemicals sectors, coupled with strong strategic and financial skills, they will be valuable additions to our Boards. These appointments continue RELX Group’s ongoing evolution of its Boards and I look forward to Carol and Robert joining us following the AGMs in April.”
Save as disclosed above, there are no additional details to disclose under Listing Rule 9.6.13R (1) to (6) in respect of the appointments of Ms Mills or Mr MacLeod.
-ENDS-