On a heady day this month, Relx entered the top ten companies in the elite FTSE 100 index.
The glory was short-lived. The next business day it was surpassed by smoking giant British American Tobacco.
But it was a moment of celebration for the bosses of one of the best-performing blue chip companies that most people have never heard of – even though it’s a staple for many big-city investors.
Although far from a household name, Relx is a £54 billion company and one of the few to have been a member of the Footsie since its inception in 1984.
It is better known by its former name Reed Elsevier, which was created in 1993 when the British trade magazine and book publisher Reed International merged with the Dutch scientific publisher Elsevier.
The company changed its name to Relx – pronounced ‘Rel-ex’ – in 2015 and the publishing house went digital.
The company’s work also includes delivering massive amounts of data to companies, selling software and organizing global conferences.
Every doctor and lawyer will have read crucial articles read through Relx.
Others may know it for its huge exhibitions such as the international real estate event Mipim or the MCM Comic Con, a mecca for superhero and sci-fi fans that usually involves lots of costume parties.
Relx has been the best performing stock on the blue chip index since 2012.
Anyone who had invested £1,000 in the shares 35 years ago – when detailed data began – would now have an asset worth £11,440.
A £1,000 investment in the wider Footsie would be worth just £4,165.
Relx is also a big dividend payer. If all the payouts had been reinvested, that £1,000 would be worth around £35,860, according to Steve Clayton, head of equities at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
The company’s history dates back to a newsprint company founded by Albert E. Reed in 1895. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the company moved into publishing and later left the production side of the business.
Relx’s greatest strength has been moving with the times, shedding underperforming or peripheral parts of its business and embracing new technologies.
The company employs more than 5,000 software engineers and was an early adopter of artificial intelligence (AI). A trading update last week for the third quarter of this year showed sales are up eight percent so far in 2023. The half-year results showed a 12 percent increase in profits to £1.35 billion.
Clayton said one of the secrets to success in the stock market is that it is a “reliable dividend payer.”
“Although it has a lot of history, it is still a very modern company that has been able to translate very successfully into the digital age,” he added.
Conferences and trade shows have been hit by the pandemic, but Relx’s events division has defied some analysts’ expectations.
Roddy Davidson, media analyst at financial services firm Shore Capital Markets, said: ‘Events and exhibitions have recovered very strongly post-Covid.
“There were some questions about whether people would come back (events) in person.”
“I think we can see very clearly that that has not been the case.”