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Relx PLC on Thursday predicted strong underlying growth in full-year revenue after a mixed first-half of 2025 which saw pretax profit fall but sales rise modestly.
The London-based provider of business, scientific and legal information said pretax profit fell 0.9% to £1.28 billion for the six months that ended June 30 from £1.30 billion a year prior.
Adjusted operating profit rose 4.4% to £1.65 billion from £1.58 billion with efforts to manage cost growth leading to an improvement in the adjusted operating margin to 34.8% from 34.1%.
Revenue grew 2.2% to £4.74 billion from £4.64 billion, or by 4% at constant currency.
Underlying revenue growth in the first half was 7%, with all four business areas contributing to underlying growth, Relx said.
Earnings per share improved to 52.9 pence from 52.6p or to 63.5p from 59.9p on an adjusted basis.
In response, shares in Relx rose 0.4% to 3,910.00p each in London on Thursday morning for a market value of £71.47 billion.
Chief Executive Erik Engstrom said: ‘Relx delivered strong revenue and profit growth in the first half of 2025, in line with full year 2024 but with a higher quality growth profile.’
Sales in Risk rose 5%, in Scientific, Technical & Medical by 3%, Legal by 6% although Exhibitions fell 3%.
Looking ahead, Relx anticipates ‘strong’ underlying growth in full-year revenue and adjusted operating profit, as well as strong growth in adjusted earnings per share on a constant currency basis.
In 2024, Relx reported revenue of £9.43 billion and adjusted EPS of 120.1p.
Relx raised the interim dividend by 7.2% to 19.5p per share from 18.2p and said the remaining £475 million of its £1.5 billion share buyback will be completed by the end of 2025.
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