Chairman's statement
Experian delivered another strong performance this year against
a backdrop of exceptionally challenging market conditions. It is an
achievement that clearly demonstrates the resilience of Experian’s
core business and the benefits we derive from our broad portfolio
of capabilities, but it has also shown just how quickly the Group can
adapt to changing circumstances.
A major focus for us during the year was to address the new priorities of our financial services clients, particularly in the US and UK, where the emphasis has been on strengthening risk management and collections activities across their organisations. We responded by intensifying our client education efforts, reallocating sales resource and quickly bringing to market a wide range of countercyclical products to satisfy the entire range of client needs. These products remain in high demand and have secured us a number of multi-country client contracts.
Experian’s Consumer Direct business, which enables consumers to monitor their personal credit files, grew strongly in both the US and UK as consumers chose to actively manage their credit status. Our increased investment in consumer marketing, the growing contribution from affinity partners, such as American Express and Discover, and demand for new identity theft protection products all contributed to Experian extending its lead in this growing market.
Outside of financial services, we continued to diversify by taking our core data and analytics products into markets such as the public sector, healthcare and telecommunications.
We also expanded our global footprint, winning substantial contracts in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific, and opening a new credit bureau in Morocco. In Latin America, where we significantly increased our presence during 2007 with the acquisition of Serasa, our business went from strength to strength, meeting the need for more advanced credit reference and customer management products.
Experian’s diverse and well balanced business model has been a major factor in our ability to keep on growing through the current economic cycle. However, we should also recognise the outstanding efforts of the management team in successfully redirecting our business towards areas of greatest need and opportunity, while continuing to reduce costs across the business. Our people have responded superbly to the challenge and I thank them all for their tremendous co-operation and energy.
Since the year end, Experian’s board has been strengthened by the appointment of Chris Callero as an executive director. Chris is the President and Chief Operating Officer for Experian and has played a central role in Experian’s success, particularly in North and Latin America, since joining the Group in 2002. Sean FitzPatrick stood down as a non-executive director in December 2008 and we are very grateful for the valuable contribution he made to our business.
Despite the difficult market conditions, corporate responsibility remained a priority for Experian during the year and we considerably widened the scope of our CR reporting to include the EMEA/Asia Pacific region for the first time. We also provided greater focus for our global community programme by concentrating on projects that provide financial education to vulnerable people and that encourage entrepreneurial skills combined with wise financial planning. In the UK, we increased the level of employee volunteering and won two awards from Business in the Community. Overall, notwithstanding the economic pressures and cost saving initiatives, the Group gave more to our communities than in any previous year.
Looking ahead, it is clear that the economic environment will remain challenging for some time to come. Experian has, however, strengthened its overall market position this year, reduced its operating costs and continued to invest in new opportunities for growth, which leaves us well placed as conditions improve. In the meantime, we remain committed to our successful strategy of focusing on data and analytics, driving profitable growth and optimising capital efficiency.
John Peace
Chairman