YouGov PLC – Half Year Results

Half Year results for the six months to 31 January 2019. Strong earnings growth in line with current five-year plan.

Summary of Results
	Unaudited six months to 31 January 2019 £m	Unaudited six months to 31 January 2018 £m	Change %	Audited full year to 31 July 2018 £m
Revenue	66.5	56.3	18%	116.6
Statutory EBITDA	13.2	8.5	55%	20.0
Adjusted Operating Profit1	12.5	8.8	41%	19.7
Adjusted Operating Profit Margin (%)1	19%	16%	3%	17%
Adjusted Profit before Tax1	13.7	10.7	28%	23.3
Adjusted Earnings per Share1	9.6p	7.3p	33%	16.6p
Statutory Operating Profit	8.4	4.4	92%	11.8
Statutory Profit before Tax	8.3	4.5	85%	11.8
Statutory Earnings per Share	5.4p	2.2p	142%	7.7p

Financial highlights

• Revenue growth of 18% (2018: 10%) – Underlying business² growth of 10%
• Adjusted operating profit¹ up by 41% to £12.5m – 35% underlying business² growth
• Adjusted profit before tax¹ up by 28% to £13.7m
• Adjusted earnings per share¹ up by 33% to 9.6p (2018: 7.3p) 
• Adjusted operating profit margin¹ up 3 percentage points to 19%
• Statutory operating profit up 92% to £8.4m
• Net cash balances of £25.0m (31 January 2018: £21.3m)

Operational highlights

• Data Products & Services revenue up by 34% to £37.2m (17% from underlying business²); now representing 54% of total (2018: 49%)
  –  Data Products revenue increased by 35% (26% from underlying business²) to £19.4m
  –  Data Services revenue increased by 33% (9% from underlying business²) to £17.8m
• Custom Research revenue increased by 4% to £30.4m; continued strategic focus on higher margin work resulting in a 15% increase in operating profit to £7.9m
• US remains the largest driver with adjusted operating profit¹ increasing by 15% to £9.1m

Long-term targets

Setting out ambitious prospective LTIP targets to incentivise senior management through to 2023:

• Double group revenue
• Double group adjusted operating profit margin³
• Achieve an adjusted earnings per share³ compound annual growth rate in excess of 30% 

1 Defined in the explanation of non-IFRS measures on page 13.
2 Defined as growth in business excluding impact of current and prior period acquisitions and movement in exchange rates.
3 In future we intend to amend our definition of adjusted operating profit to include amortisation of intangible assets charged to operating expenses, as explained on page 8. 

Commenting on the results, Stephan Shakespeare, Chief Executive, said:

“In the final year of our current five-year growth plan we are continuing to deliver revenue and earnings growth ahead of the market. Our syndicated data model has broken new ground in the industry, and as we announce targets for our next five-year plan, we are no less ambitious. Our aim is to deliver the best tools and the best data for our clients. Our new plan focuses on three strategic pillars to deliver on that goal: activating our data to create targetable audiences, investing in technology to ensure our data is integrated and customisable, and opening up some of our data as a public resource. We believe this will help create a universal data platform for our clients, as we look to fulfil our ambition of becoming the world’s leading supplier of proprietary panel data.”