Chief Executive Officer, Erik Engstrom, commented:

“RELX delivered strong revenue and profit growth in 2022. The improving long-term growth trajectory is being driven by the ongoing shift in our business mix towards higher growth analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers across market segments.”

“We also performed well on our corporate responsibility priorities during the year, making good progress with our unique contributions to society, further improving our key performance metrics, and again being recognised by a number of external agencies through high ESG ratings.”

“In recognition of our strong cash flow and financial position we are proposing a 10% increase in the full year dividend to 54.6p (49.8p), and we intend to deploy a total of £800m on share buybacks in 2023.”



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Revenue £8,553m (£7,244m); underlying growth +9%: Electronic revenue, representing 83% of the total, grew +6%, with a further recovery in face-to-face activity and a reducing print drag bringing the overall group underlying revenue growth rate to +9%.

Adjusted operating profit £2,683m (£2,210m); underlying growth +15%: Our strategy of driving continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth, together with the recovery in face-to-face activity, resulted in an improvement in the group adjusted operating margin to 31.4% (30.5%).

Reported operating profit £2,323m (£1,884m): Improvement driven by higher adjusted operating profit.

Adjusted profit before tax £2,489m (£2,077m); constant currency growth +13%: the adjusted net interest expense increased to £194m (£133m). The average interest rate on gross debt was 2.9% (2.0%).

Reported profit before tax £2,113m (£1,797m): Improvement driven by higher adjusted profit before tax.

Tax: The adjusted tax charge was £530m (£384m). The adjusted effective tax rate was 21.3% (18.5%), with the prior year benefitting from non-recurring tax credits. The reported tax charge was £481m (£326m).

Adjusted EPS 102.2p (87.6p) +17%; constant currency growth +10%.

Reported EPS 85.2p (76.3p) +12%.

Dividend: We are proposing a full year dividend of 54.6p (49.8p), an increase of +10%. Dividend cover, based on adjusted earnings per share, is 1.9x (1.8x).

Net debt/EBITDA 2.1x (2.4x): Net debt at 31 December 2022 was £6.6bn (£6.0bn), with the increase due to currency movements. Adjusted cash flow conversion was 101% (101%).

Portfolio development: In 2022 we completed nine small acquisitions for a total consideration of £443m.

Share buybacks: We deployed £500m on share buybacks in 2022. In 2023 we intend to deploy a total of £800m, of which £150m has already been completed.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) recognition: In 2022, RELX achieved a AAA MSCI ESG rating for a seventh consecutive year; maintained its first place sector ranking on ESG by Sustainalytics; remained fourth in the Responsibility100 Index, which measures FTSE 100 companies against the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and was a constituent of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index for a fourth consecutive year.

see & read more on. https://www.relx.com/media/press-releases/year-2023/relx-2022-results