Experian warns of World Cup dip
EXPERIAN, the credit-checking and data group, warned yesterday that the World Cup is likely to dent its trading in Brazil over the summer, taking the shine off a four per cent rise in annual earnings to $1.2bn (£709m) and sending the FTSE 100 firm’s shares down 6.5 per cent.
The company posted a 2.3 per cent rise in continuing revenues to $4.84bn for the year to 31 March, and said its recently-acquired Passport Health and 41st Parameter businesses were “performing well”.
However, chief executive Don Robert, who will become chairman in July, said the firm expects to encounter “a subdued trading environment” in Brazil while the World Cup runs, compounding the effects of a weak real on earnings in the country. Latin America generated a fifth of Experian’s revenues last year.