Life is never exciting at RELX, the former Reed Elsevier business, and the nine-month figures were about as racy as it gets. Underlying revenue growth was 4 per cent, the same as in the first half, but an acceleration from the 3 per cent of the past five years.
The growth at its legal business, which has been hit by a general slowdown in legal action in the US, was 2 per cent — for the past five years it has been stuck at 1 per cent. At the risk and business analytics side, underlying growth ticked up to 9 per cent, from 8 per cent at the halfway stage.
This may not sound that exciting but this slow acceleration of growth is significant