Credit checker Experian sees end to forex woes as profit steadies

LONDON (Reuters) - Experian Plc (EXPN.L), the world's biggest credit data company, forecast an end to adverse foreign exchange movements that have hit its revenue as it reported an unchanged full-year pretax profit.

The FTSE-100 company, which is best known for running consumer credit checks for banks, landlords and retailers, said on Wednesday that profit before tax was $1 billion (692 million pounds) for the year-ended 2015, the same as a year earlier.

The company had warned in January that if current rates prevail, it expected a hit on earnings before interest and tax from exchange rate movements of about 11 percent for the year ending March 31, and a further hit of about 3 percent next year.

"If recent rates prevail, we no longer expect foreign exchange to be a headwind for the year ending 31 March 2017," Chief Executive Brian Cassin said in its earnings report.

Experian's revenue fell 4 percent from the previous year to $4.5 billion, in line with analysts' estimates according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Experian, along with two other major credit reporting agencies, Equifax Inc (EFX.N) and TransUnion (TRUN.N), generate credit reports and scores based on consumers' borrowing and payment habits, including bankruptcies and court judgements.

Experian reported costs of $20 million arising from the data breach last October that exposed sensitive personal data of some 15 million people who applied for service with T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.N).

Experian said it discovered the theft of the T-Mobile customer data from one of its servers on Sept. 15. The computer stored information about some 15 million people who had applied for service with telecoms carrier T-Mobile during the prior two years, Experian said.

Connecticut's attorney general said he would launch an investigation into the breach and Massachusetts Attorney General said she expects a multi-state probe would be launched into the breach.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Lawrence White in London, editing by Louise Heavens)