Results

Results for the six months ended September 30th 2021:

• Half-year revenues for the Group were £159.3m, an increase of £17.5m or 12% on the prior year. While some parts of our business were undoubtedly bouncing back from the impact of covid last year, our overall revenue growth was still up 4% on the first half of 2019/20  

• The Group’s half-year operating profit of £25.7m exceeded all expectations and was a significant improvement on both last year (£17.8m) and the first half of 2019/20 (£11.1m), which we use as a pre-covid comparator  

• At the end of this first half, subscription volumes were 4% ahead of the same period last year at 1,151k.

• Our Future Customer Experience (FCX) platform is now live in the UK and North America, a milestone on our planned roll-out globally by 2022  

• Economist Impact has bounced back, with revenues of £40.0m in these six months, an increase of 52% on the prior year  

• Economist Intelligence saw revenues rise 2% (9% at constant currency) to £21.8m  

Results for the 12 months ended March 31st 2021:

• Operating profit for the Group increased by 27% over last year to £41.8m
  on revenues of £310.3m

• The Group achieved revenue of £310.3m, 3% less than in 2020. Subscription revenues grew, however, this only partially offset the decline in client-led revenue in Client Solutions and Events, which were adversely impacted by lockdowns and uncertainty during the covid pandemic

• Largest-ever increase of subscribers in a single year: gain of 90,000 to 1,122,000 subscribers

• The Economist’s subscription revenues rose by 6% as a result of a record growth in subscribers, combined with lower acquisition marketing expenditure

• The Economist Intelligence Unit’s new business increased by 44% with its Clearstate healthcare business revenues up 29%

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