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RNS Number : 0166R  GlobalData PLC  15 July 2025

15 July 2025

GlobalData Plc

(AIM: DATA, GlobalData, the Group)

Trading Update

 

·    Momentum building in Contracted Forward Revenue in Q2 following a
slow start to FY25

·    Continued investment in Growth Transformation Plan initiatives, two
further M&A deals secured

·    Tender offer of up to £60 million to be launched post Interim
Results at £1.50 per share

·    Process for move to Main Market listing is underway and expected to
complete in Q4 2025

 

GlobalData Plc, the leading data, insight, and technology company, today
provides a Trading Update for the six months ended 30 June 2025, ahead of the
announcement of its interim results expected to be published on 5 August 2025.

 

The Group has delivered a resilient first half performance, with good momentum
in our continued transformation as part of our Growth Transformation Plan
2024-26. In particular, during the half, our new sales teams have been
embedded together with new ways of working. It has taken time during the
period to achieve this and we continue to invest in strengthening our
offering.

 

We are encouraged by the core strengths of our business model and the
underlying momentum in our forward order book, despite the continued
challenges from an uncertain macro-economic environment experienced across the
sector. In particular:

 

o We are transitioning to a more solutions-based selling and strategic account
management approach, and there has been significant change to our sales
organisation in order to achieve this, for example, in one of our units we
have recruited 23 new sales people in the last twelve months. We have been
instilling new ways of working to get even closer to our customers to drive
key initiatives as part of our customer obsession and move towards strategic
account management. It has taken time during the period to achieve this.

o Active strategic account management is starting to drive a strong pipeline
of expanding relationships within our larger clients, as we roll out our new
offering of Solutions, including Sales Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence
and Strategic Intelligence.

o Expansion of our contracted forward revenue base, which provides improved
visibility for H2 2025 and beyond.

 

 

Mike Danson, Chief Executive Officer of GlobalData Plc, commented: "GlobalData
has shown resilience through a period of transition towards solutions-based
selling and an acute focus on strategic account management as we get even
closer to our customers. With a tough and uncertain macro- environment we
continue to make significant progress in our Growth Transformation Plan.

 

Following a slow start in Q1 2025, momentum is building as can be seen by the
improved Contracted Forward Revenue which provides improved visibility for H2
2025 and active strategic account management is starting to drive a pipeline
of stronger expanding relationships. I am pleased that we have maintained
momentum in our acquisition strategy, adding two businesses so far in 2025
that enhance our Consumer Innovation Intelligence Solutions, and I wish to
extend a warm welcome to the new members of our team.

 

The offer proposals we received in April clearly caused some distraction in
the first half, but we, as a Board, believe that the medium and long-term
prospects of the Group offer an excellent opportunity of strong shareholder
returns. As we look forward to joining the Main Market in Q4 2025, we are also
delighted to be able to announce the launch of a tender offer for our shares,
again highlighting our focus on utilising both our cashflows and a balance
sheet to drive Total Shareholder Returns.

 

Trading update

 

·  Group revenue of c.£157m (H1 2024: £140m), representing growth of
approximately 12% for the half. Underlying organic revenue excluding the
impact of forex was flat for the period.  Despite a slow start to the
financial year, GlobalData has exited the half with improved momentum in
underlying Contracted Forward Revenue (CFR) excluding the impact of forex,
which accelerated growth to 3%, representing a strong second quarter in CFR.

 

·   Renewal rates have remained consistent throughout the period.

 

·   USD weakness has impacted the H1 result and is expected to have more of
an impact on the full year results, with c.50% of Group revenues derived in
USD. This is expected to have an approximate effect of reducing revenue for
the full year by around c.£10m.

 

·  Ongoing investment in key Growth Transformation Plan initiatives, such as
transforming the Group's sales organisation, has meant that organic Adjusted
EBITDA margin has declined by 3ppts for H1, with recent M&A diluting the
margin further. We expect to regain this margin through the second half:

o The benefits from our transition to a more solutions-based selling and
strategic account management approach, as described above, are starting to
come through.

o In FY24, GlobalData strengthened its One Platform with four value-creating
acquisitions. As expected, these acquisitions did not make a positive
contribution to Adjusted EBITDA in the first half, but we are now further down
the integration processes, and are generating the associated cost synergies as
planned. We expect EBITDA contribution from these acquisitions of £8m of
EBITDA through the second half.

 

·   Continued investment in product enhancing AI and solutions focus:

o Deepened our demonstrable impact with customers, with AI Hub usage
increasing 2.1x in H1 across over 100k users.

o Launched "Sam", our first digital worker to transform the future of work, by
using agentic AI to deliver personalized insights, automate workflows, and
increase productivity for sales professionals.

 

 

Investment in M&A in H1 with two further deals secured

 

·   Continued focus on executing M&A with the completion of the
acquisitions of Ai Palette, a leading AI powered platform for predictive
consumer insights and product innovation, on 7 March 2025 and of the consumer
trends intelligence business, Stylus, on 7 July 2025.

 

·   The addition of Stylus represents a strengthening of our Consumer
innovation intelligence solution, which will combine the strength of the
Group's proprietary data and AI platform with Stylus' leading insights on
consumer trends and the technology capability of our recent AI Palette
acquisition.

 

Capital allocation - initiating a Tender Offer

 

The Group continues to maintain a disciplined approach to capital allocation,
with the objective of achieving long-term compounding growth to enhance
shareholder value. Our capital allocation priorities therefore remain building
the business through organic growth, selected M&A, investment in AI and
the platform, and sales excellence.

 

On 6 February 2025, we announced a share buyback of £50 million, which was
suspended on 2 May 2025 following the announcement of the possible offer
proposals on 30 April 2025. At the time it was suspended, approximately £39
million of shares had been purchased under the share buyback programme. The
Group will not be recommencing this share buyback programme, instead the Group
will look to return surplus capital to shareholders by way of a tender offer
of shares.

 

Accordingly, the Board intends to launch a tender offer of up to £60 million
at a tender offer price of £1.50 per share following the half year's results
announcement. Further details of the tender offer will be included in a
separate announcement when the tender offer is launched to the market. It is
expected that the tender offer will conclude prior to admission on the Main
Market.

 

Process for move to Main Market listing is underway and expected to complete
in Q4 2025

 

On 6 February 2025, the Group announced its proposed move to the Main Market
of the London Stock Exchange. Following this announcement, the Group received
preliminary, conditional proposals regarding possible cash and partial share
alternative offers from two parties, as announced on 30 April 2025.

 

The Board carefully reviewed these proposals, but ultimately could not agree
terms that represented an attractive value for all shareholders, having regard
for the medium and long-term prospects of the Group and the discussions were
terminated.

 

Following this, the Board now reconfirms its intention to proceed with its
plans to move to a Main Market listing and expects to complete this process in
Q4 2025. The Board believes that the Group's continued investment in the
business and platform, its strong balance sheet, cash flows and significant
M&A firepower offers shareholders a compelling long-term opportunity for
strong returns.

 

ENQUIRIES

 

 GlobalData Plc
 Mike Danson, Chief Executive Officer        0207 936 6400
 Graham Lilley, Chief Financial Officer

 J.P. Morgan Cazenove (Nomad, Joint Broker)  0203 493 8000
 Bill Hutchings
 Mose Adigun

 Panmure Liberum (Joint Broker)              0207 886 2500
 Rupert Dearden
 Dougie McLeod

 Investec Bank plc (Joint Broker)            0207 597 5970

 Henry Reast

 Virginia Bull

 FTI Consulting (Financial PR)               0203 727 1000
 Edward Bridges                              globaldata@fticonsulting.com
 Dwight Burden
 Emma Hall

 

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