Half-year Trading Update and Notice of Results

YouGov PLC

02 February 2024

 

2 February 2024

YouGov plc

("YouGov" or "the Group" or "the Company")

Half-year Trading Update and Notice of Results

Continued growth momentum against a difficult macro-economic environment

YouGov remains confident in achieving full year expectations

YouGov, the international research and data analytics group, today issues a trading update for the six months ended 31 January 2024.

YouGov has seen resilient performance during the period, despite the continued challenging macro-economic environment. Encouragingly, we continue to see sales momentum in the technology sector, while some other sectors have been more challenging. The Group's performance has been driven by stable demand in our Data Products and Research divisions, while discretionary spend continues to be impacted by general market softness.

The Company has delivered revenue growth in the business on a like-for-like basis, after accounting for the impact of M&A and FX headwinds. Reported revenue for the first half will be strong and we have continued to invest in the business, in particular on staff costs. As we move into the second half, the focus on our commercial rigour, supported by the recent appointment of a Chief Commercial Officer, will be central to our operations and in further strengthening the Group's foundations to deliver on our third long-term strategic plan.

On 9 January 2024, YouGov completed its transformational acquisition of the Consumer Panel Services of GfK GmbH ("CPS GfK") and has since seen a positive response from both employees and clients. The integration process has commenced, and our combined teams are collaborating on commercial opportunities to capitalise on the benefits of the enhanced value proposition. CPS GfK's clients will benefit from the depth of YouGov's profiling, media consumption and brand data, as well as its reach in the US, which remains our key strategic growth area. Similarly, YouGov clients will benefit from one of the richest behavioural data sets on FMCG and retail consumer insights through CPS GfK. The acquisition will support YouGov's continued growth by expanding our combined offering to existing clients in our current markets, as well as the opportunity to win new clients and roll out into new markets. The acquired business has been trading ahead of expectations since the acquisition announcement in July 2023.

The Board remains cognisant of the challenging market conditions and client budget pressures as we move into the second half of the financial year. Clients are increasingly looking for high-quality, data-driven solutions, and while we continue to experience longer sales cycles, we remain confident in our products and our sales momentum which, after a slow Q1, has significantly accelerated in Q2. Therefore, we remain confident in achieving current market expectations for the full year, underpinned by our robust sales pipeline as of January 2024.

Notice of Results

YouGov will publish its results for the six months ended 31 January 2024 on 26 March 2024.

Enquiries:

YouGov plc Steve Hatch, CEO Alex McIntosh, CFO Hannah Jethwani, Investor Relations Director	020 7012 6000
FTI Consulting Charles Palmer / Valerija Cymbal / Jemima Gurney	020 3727 1000
Deutsche Numis (NOMAD and Joint broker) Nick Westlake / Iqra Amin	020 7260 1000
Berenberg (Joint Broker) Mark Whitmore / Richard Andrews / Alix Mecklenburg-Solodkoff	020 3207 7800

About YouGov

YouGov is an international online research data and analytics technology group headquartered in London and with 1,800 staff located in 37 offices around the world.

Our mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world thinks.

Our innovative solutions help the world's most recognised brands, media owners and agencies to plan, activate and track their marketing activities better.

With operations in the UK, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, we have one of the world's largest research networks.

At the core of our platform is an ever-growing source of consumer data that has been amassed over our twenty years of operation. We call it Living Data. All of our products and services draw upon this detailed understanding of our 26 million registered individuals to deliver accurate, actionable consumer insights.

As innovators and pioneers of online market research, we have a strong reputation as a trusted source of accurate data and insights. Testament to this, YouGov data is regularly referenced by the global press, and we are the most quoted market research source in the world.

YouGov. Living Consumer Intelligence.

For further information, visit business.yougov.com

 

END