RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools, reports results for 2025 and provides outlook for another year of strong growth in 2026.
RELX reports as follows:
Chief Executive Officer, Erik Engstrom, commented: “RELX delivered strong underlying revenue and profit growth and strong new sales in 2025: continued strong growth in Risk; good growth with improving momentum in Scientific, Technical & Medical; a further step up in growth in Legal; and strong ongoing growth in Exhibitions.
“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 these products by leveraging deep customer understanding to combine our unique content and comprehensive data sets with advanced technologies.
“The continued evolution of artificial intelligence is enabling us to add more value to our customers, as we embed additional functionality in our products, and to develop and launch products at a faster pace, while continuing to manage cost growth below revenue growth. This evolution has been a key driver 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.”
Revenue £9,590m (£9,434m); underlying growth +7%.
Adjusted operating profit £3,342m (£3,199m); underlying growth +9%: Continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth led to an improvement in the group adjusted operating margin to 34.8% (33.9%).
Reported operating profit £3,027m (£2,861m): Reported operating profit includes amortisation of acquired intangible assets of £248m (£258m).
Adjusted profit before tax £3,059m (£2,903m): The adjusted net interest expense was £283m (£296m). The average interest rate on gross debt was 3.9% (4.4%).
Reported profit before tax £2,750m (£2,557m). Reported net interest was £286m (£298m).
Tax: The adjusted tax charge was £688m (£652m). The adjusted effective tax rate was 22.5% (22.5%). The reported tax charge was £672m (£613m).
Adjusted EPS 128.5p (120.1p); constant currency growth +10%. Reported EPS 112.6p (103.6p).
Dividend: We are proposing a full year dividend of 67.5p (63.0p), an increase of +7%.
Portfolio development: In 2025 we completed five acquisitions for a total consideration of £270m, and two small disposals.
Net debt/EBITDA 2.0x (1.8x): Net debt at 31 December 2025 was £7,201m (£6,563m). EBITDA was £3,846m (£3,724m). Adjusted cash flow conversion was 99% (97%).
Share buybacks: We deployed £1,500m on share buybacks in 2025. In recognition of our strong financial position and cash flow we intend to deploy a total of £2,250m on share buybacks in 2026, of which £250m has already been completed.
Corporate responsibility: We performed well on our corporate responsibility priorities in 2025, on our unique contributions to society, and on our key metrics. Our performance was again recognised by external agencies: RELX achieved a AAA MSCI rating for a tenth consecutive year, ranked in the top 1% of over 14,700 companies globally by Sustainalytics, and was included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook.
To read the full financial results click here.
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