Capital allocation policy and outstanding debt
Capital allocation policy
Our free cash flow has consistently been strong which has been a key pillar of our disciplined capital allocation:
- Our first priority is to invest in organic innovation to drive growth in the company;
- Secondly we aim to grow the dividend in line with underlying earnings growth;
- Thirdly we look at selective acquisitions which fit with our strategic priorities; and
- We also consider share repurchases. These are normally only done for offsetting the dilutive effect from employee and executive share reward schemes.
Financing strategy
- Our leverage policy is to target benchmark Net debt in the range of 2.0–2.5x EBITDA, commensurate with maintaining a strong investment grade rating (BBB+ / Baa1 or above). Net debt on 31 March 2025 was US$4,684m (2024: US$4,053m), 1.8 times Benchmark EBITDA (2024: 1.7 times).
- When refinancing we aim to space out our debt maturities to mitigate refinancing risk in any one year.
- We hold substantial undrawn committed bank facilities in order to maintain liquidity.
Bank facilities
As at 31 March 2025 we had:
- Undrawn committed revolving credit facilities from banks totalling US$2.4bn, with four years average remaining tenor. This includes our core US$1.8bn club facility, committed until March 2029.
- US$4.6bn of outstanding bonds, with an average remaining tenor of five years. The next bond maturity is in October 2025 and 66% of bonds have maturities exceeding four years. 
- Cash and Cash equivalents of US$368m.
All our bank facilities contain one financial covenant requiring us to keep an interest cover of Benchmark EBIT being at least 3x net interest (excluding IFRS16 impact). As at 31 March 2025 this cover was 14x.
Interest rate risk
- Our policy is to hold 50% - 100% of our net funding at fixed interest rates, with the remainder being held at floating interest rates.
- As at 31 March 2025, 76% of our net funding was at fixed interest rates, mitigating the impacts of general rate rises. 
- Our debt levels are usually lower at the end of the financial year due to strong cash inflows during the second half of the financial year. This typically increases the proportion of our debt that is fixed rate at 31 March. Conversely, debt levels are usually higher at 30 September as we pay staff incentives in June and the final dividend in July, which then reduces the proportion of debt which is at fixed rates.
- We use interest rate swaps to adjust the balance between fixed and floating rate debt. The effective interest rate on loan and bond debt, including derivatives, was 3.3% for the year ended 31 March 2025 (2024: 3.1%).
Percent of debt at fixed interest rates graph
FX risk
- In business trading our revenues and costs are substantially in the same currency for most countries, minimising transactional FX risk. There is a translation risk when local currencies are converted into USD.
- Our borrowings are in USD, GBP, EUR and AUD. Looking at our total borrowings (bonds, drawn bank facilities and commercial paper) we aim for an allocation of our borrowings broadly in line with the currencies of our earnings, though we do not borrow in Brazilian Real or Colombian Peso. We use FX contracts to manage residual currency risk exposures.

Credit ratings

Our aim is to maintain a strong investment grade credit rating (BBB+ / Baa1 or above). Our current credit ratings are:

  Standard & Poor’s Moody’s
Long term A- A3
Long term outlook Stable Stable
Short term A-1 P-2

Bond maturity profile

Experian aims to maintain a smooth maturity profile for its bond debt to minimise refinancing risk in any given year.

Bond Maturity Profile (US$)

Position at 31 March 2025; financial years shown.

The values shown above are shown before the impact of cross-currency swaps and FX forward contracts. The FX rates used to translate GBP and EUR bonds to USD are the rates as at 31 March 2025.

Outstanding debt

Bond debt Issuer Currency Amount (mils) Coupon Maturity date Issue date Series Rating
Euronotes Experian Finance plc GBP 400 0.739% 29 Oct 2025 October 2020 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc EUR 500 1.375% 25 Jun 2026 May 2017 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
US Notes Experian Finance plc USD 500 4.25% 1 Feb 2029 January 2019   A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
US Notes Experian Finance plc USD 750 2.75% 8 March 2030 December 2019   A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Europe DAC EUR 500 1.56% 16 May 2031 February 2022 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc GBP 400 3.25% 7 Apr 2032 April 2020 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes  Experian Finance plc EUR 500 3.51% 15 Dec 2033 January 2025 EMTN A-stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
Euronotes Experian Finance plc EUR 650 3.375% 10 Sep 2034 Sep 2024 EMTN A- stable outlook / A3 stable outlook
  • EMTNs and 144As / Bonds & Notes
  • 06 June 2025
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars 5 March 2024
    27 May 2025
    7 March 2025: Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2025)
    27 May 2025
    23 January 2025: Final terms - €500m 3.51% notes due 2033
    16 January 2025
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars 5 March 2024
    26 September 2024
    Final terms - €650m 3.375% notes due 2034
    26 September 2024
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars 5 March 2024
    05 March 2024
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2024)
    14 March 2023
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2023)
    15 February 2022
    Final terms - €500m 1.56% notes due 2031
    08 February 2022
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars 24 January 2022
    24 January 2022
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2022)
    28 September 2020
    Final terms - £400m 0.739% notes due 2025
    16 September 2020
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars 12 March 2020
    31 March 2020
    Final terms - £400m 3.25% notes due 2032
    12 March 2020
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2020)
    10 December 2019
    Final terms - $750m 2.75% US notes due 2030
    03 December 2019
    US Notes Listing Particulars (2019)
    31 January 2019
    Final terms - $500m 5.25% US notes due 2029
    28 January 2019
    US Note Listing Particulars (2019)
    27 June 2018
    Final terms - £400m 2.125% notes due 2024
    18 June 2018
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars Dated 23 May 2018
    23 May 2018
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2018)
    19 May 2017
    Final Terms - €500 million 1.375% notes due 2026
    18 May 2017
    Supplement to Base Listing Particulars Dated 9 March 2017
    09 March 2017
    Euro Medium Term Note Base Listing Particulars (2017)