21st Feb 2019 07:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - RELX PLC on Thursday said its annual profit was flat from the year before due to increased costs and expenses.
The analytics firm posted a GBP1.720 billion pretax profit for 2018, a very marginal dip from its GBP1.721 billion profit in 2017.
Revenue increased 2.0%, hitting GBP7.49 billion versus GBP7.34 billion. However, selling and distribution costs rose to GBP1.19 billion from GBP1.16 billion and administration and other expenses rose to GBP1.73 billion from GBP1.68 billion.
Additionally, finance costs rose to GBP217 million from GBP205 million.
In 2019, the company intends to deploy GBP600 million of buybacks - of which GBP100 million has already completed - down from GBP700 million in 2018. This reduction was attributed to above average acquisition spend in 2018.
The total consideration for acquisitions in 2018 was GBP978 million, of which GBP585 million was for ThreatMetrix. This compares to a total acquisition consideration of just GBP123 million in 2017.
"Key business trends in the early part of 2019 are consistent with 2018, 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 2019," said RELX Chief Executive Erik Engstrom.
RELX has proposed a full year dividend of 42.1 pence per share, up 6.9% from 39.4p per share in 2017.
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