YouGov PLC on Tuesday said it expects to outperform previous guidance for financial 2024 and announced the acquisition of insights firm Yabble.
For the year that ended July 31, the London-based research and data analytics company expects to report an adjusted operating profit between £43 million to £46 million ahead of revised guidance from June 20 of £41 million to £44 million.
YouGov shares were up 17% to 514.00 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.
Revenue is anticipated to be £237 million to £330 million, beating the revised guidance of £324 million to £327 million.
For the prior financial year, adjusted operating profit and revenue stood at £48.3 million and £258.3 million respectively.
YouGov saw strong growth in Customer Research in financial 2024, although this was somewhat offset by declines in Data Services.
‘The company accelerated a strategic review of the core YouGov business and commenced a cost optimisation plan to ensure efficient capital allocation going forward. As a result of the strategic review, the company identified several initiatives including a reduction in support functions, discontinuing under-performing products, scaling back in certain non-core regions and curtailing third-party supplier costs,’ YouGov said.
These streamlining measures will generate £20 million in cost savings annually, of which YouGov has taken initial action on approximately £15 million.
It is anticipated that about 70% of savings will be realised in financial 2025, weighted towards the second half of the year.
In addition, Marc Ryan has been named as Chief Product Officer with the appointment taking effect in September. He previously served in the same role at the US insights firm Scuba Analytics Inc.
Furthermore, YouGov announced the acquisition of The Thinking Studio Ltd which trades under the name Yabble.
Yabble, a New Zealand-based company, uses generative artificial intelligence to power audience insight tools and serves a range of Fortune 500 companies and international brands.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Hatch said: ‘Generative AI is transforming the insight landscape and with the acquisition of Yabble, YouGov is strongly positioned to take advantage of this change. Early adopters of Yabble’s pioneering technology include some of the most data-savvy brands. I have seen how powerful the combination of YouGov’s data and Yabble’s technology is, and I am excited for more clients to experience this.’
YouGov will pay a £4.5 million initial cash consideration, funded through existing cash resources. The sellers have agreed to apply a portion of proceeds towards a phased subscription of 546,951 YouGov shares due for admission on Friday.
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