RELX Exhibitions Business Drags, but Remainder of Divisions Largely Unaffected by Coronavirus

Over the past decade, RELX has undergone wholesale changes to the structure of the company, taking its exposure to electronic-format businesses from 35% to closer to 90%. This change was achieved primarily through a series of targeted acquisitions and disposals, such as that of data aggregator ChoicePoint in early 2008, which subsequently burdened the company with significant debt-service costs. Despite these challenges, the company has managed to significantly drive operating margin growth with the improved business mix. Since 2005, operating margins have expanded by close to 50%. This has also been reflected in returns on invested capital, which have increased on an adjusted basis from close to 8% in 2009 to more than 13% in 2019, against a weighted average cost of capital of just 8.3%.