Relx Share Price Spiked Up 3% but Later Fell on FY 2023 Results

The Relx PLC (LON: REL) share price spiked up 3% after announcing its results for the year to 31 December 2023. The company reported that its revenues reached £9,161 million, up from £8,553 million, marking an 8% organic growth. 

Electronic revenues, constituting 83% of the total, surged by 7%, while the expansion in direct interactions significantly compensated for the reduction in print, resulting in an 8% overall rise in group revenue.

The adjusted operating profit increased to £3,030 million from £2,683 million, showing a 13% organic growth. Our commitment to continuous process improvement fueled this growth, keeping cost increases below revenue growth, and the resurgence of direct interactions boosted the group's adjusted operating margin to 33.1% from 31.4%.

The reported operating profit stood at £2,682 million, up from £2,323 million, including the amortisation of acquired intangible assets amounting to £280 million, compared to £296 million previously.

The adjusted pre-tax profit was £2,716 million, an increase from £2,489 million, with adjusted net interest expenses rising to £314 million from £194 million. This includes a one-time charge of £26 million for early bond redemption, setting the average effective net interest rate on gross debt at 4.6%, or 4.2%, excluding this one-time charge.

The reported pre-tax profit climbed to £2,295 million from £2,113 million, with net interest reported at £315 million, up from £201 million. The adjusted tax expense was £553 million, slightly up from £530 million, with the adjusted effective tax rate at 20.4%, down from 21.3%, benefiting from one-time tax credits. 

The reported tax expense was £507 million, up from £481 million. The company proposed a full-year dividend of 58.8p, an 8% increase from 54.6p.

Erik Engstrom, Relx’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “RELX delivered strong revenue and profit growth in 2023, driven by the ongoing shift in business mix towards higher growth information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers across market segments. We have been able to develop and deploy these tools across the company for well over a decade by leveraging deep customer understanding to combine leading content and data sets with powerful technologies.”

Relx share price. 

The Relx share price spiked 3.00% to trade at 3430.5p from Wednesday’s closing price of 3330.5p.