LONDON, March 9, 2026, 21:23 GMT
RELX PLC bought back 500,000 of its own shares on Monday at an average 2,639.7143 pence each, a purchase worth about 13.2 million pounds that lifted its 2026 repurchases to 23.23 million shares. The purchase extends a broader 2026 plan that RELX said would deploy 2.25 billion pounds on share buybacks this year. 1
The latest move matters because RELX has been swept into a broader selloff in data and legal-information companies since Anthropic launched a new plug-in for its Claude chatbot in February. That selloff also hit Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer, raising fresh questions about how well established information providers can defend growth as generative AI moves deeper into legal and research work. 2
RELX said the stock will be held as treasury shares, meaning shares a company buys back and keeps rather than cancels. That pushed treasury holdings to 27.34 million shares and left 1.801 billion ordinary shares in issue, excluding treasury stock, the filing showed. 1
Monday’s purchase sits inside a 450 million-pound tranche due to run until March 20. RELX unveiled that plan on Feb. 12, saying it followed a 250 million-pound programme completed on Feb. 6 and formed part of 2.25 billion pounds earmarked for 2026 buybacks; the same day it reported 2025 revenue of 9.59 billion pounds, adjusted operating profit of 3.342 billion pounds and a proposed full-year dividend of 67.5 pence. 3
Chief Executive Erik Engstrom said in February that AI was “enabling us to add more value” as RELX embedded more functionality in its products and launched them faster. Chief Financial Officer Nick Luff told Reuters the group’s constantly updated content and proprietary algorithms help it deliver “the right judgments” for professionals making high-value decisions. RELX said it had launched or announced 13 generative AI products, including Lexis+ and Protégé. 4
RELX repeated last week in a March investor presentation that it saw positive momentum across the group and expected another year of strong underlying growth in revenue and adjusted operating profit. That line has held even after AI worries pushed the stock back to levels last seen in 2021. 5
Investors are not all convinced. Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel, said of software-sector repurchases that “I don’t think the buybacks are enough,” while Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley Investment Management said purchases announced after a sharp drop can look like “an attempt to stop the decline.” 6
For now, UBS AG London Branch is running the current RELX programme independently, and the tranche is due to end on March 20. RELX still operates in the same legal and information markets as Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer, where investors remain focused on how quickly AI tools could change customer workflows. 3
