GlobalData's first-half results show a business still increasing reported profit at operating level while higher financing costs absorb more of that progress. Operating profit rose by £2.4m to £30.9m, but net finance costs increased by £3.9m to £7.7m, contributing to a 6% decline in profit before tax to £23.2m.
At the same time, the group generated £31.3m of free cash flow while paying £8.5m in dividends, spending £21.7m on net M&A and using £18.6m to acquire shares for cancellation. Those three uses totalled £48.8m — £17.5m more than H1 free cash flow.
That does not mean GlobalData borrowed £17.5m specifically to finance those activities. Cash and funding are not attributable that neatly. But alongside net bank debt rising from £114.2m at the end of 2025 to £133m at June and management explicitly linking higher finance charges to increased bank debt, it shows how capital allocation and financing are becoming more significant to the way GlobalData's earnings need to be read.
GlobalData's headline numbers initially present an improving reported profit picture.
Revenue increased 4% to £162.9m and statutory operating profit rose 8% to £30.9m. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5% to £54.8m, with the reported adjusted EBITDA margin rising from 33% to 34%.
The progression changes below operating profit.
| Metric | H1 2026 | H1 2025 | Reported change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £162.9m | £156.5m | +4% |
| Operating profit | £30.9m | £28.5m | +8% |
| Finance costs | £7.7m | £3.8m | +103% |
| Profit before tax | £23.2m | £24.7m | -6% |
| Free cash flow | £31.3m | £42.6m | -27% |
The £3.9m increase in finance costs was approximately 163% of the £2.4m increase in operating profit.
GlobalData says the higher finance charge resulted from increased average drawn debt during H1 2026. Of the £7.7m finance cost, £0.6m related to IFRS 16 lease interest, unchanged from the previous year.
The important distinction is not that GlobalData's financing costs are unusually large relative to the entire business. They are not. It is that the incremental financing charge during the period was greater than the additional operating profit the business produced.
That is why higher operating profit did not translate into higher pre-tax profit.
The cash numbers make the capital-allocation side of the story clearer.
GlobalData generated £31.3m of free cash flow during H1. Against that, it paid £8.5m of dividends, spent £21.7m on net M&A and used £18.6m to acquire its own shares for cancellation.
Combined, those uses reached £48.8m, equivalent to approximately 156% of free cash flow.
The comparison is deliberately limited. It does not claim that a particular acquisition, dividend or buyback was funded by a particular borrowing. What it establishes is that the cash generated under GlobalData's free-cash-flow measure was insufficient on its own to cover that combination of H1 capital uses.
Net bank debt consequently provides a useful second reference point. It stood at £133m at June, compared with £114.2m at December 2025, an increase of £18.8m over the half.
The company nevertheless retains considerable financial headroom. GlobalData's trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA was £112.9m at June, putting net bank debt at roughly 1.2 times that figure by magnitude, below the group's stated target leverage range of 2–3 times. It has since increased its Non-Healthcare facility by £60m to £245m and extended the £200m Healthcare facility to December 2028.
The balance-sheet story, therefore, is not one of immediate financing pressure. It is about the greater role that debt and financing costs are playing as GlobalData simultaneously invests, acquires businesses and returns capital to shareholders.
There is also an important qualification to the reported decline in cash generation.
Cash generated from operations fell 23% to £50.8m and free cash flow declined 27% to £31.3m, but management identifies several factors affecting the comparison. These included £3.4m of cash-settled share-based payments, £3.2m of collections on three contracts moving into H2 and a £3m foreign-exchange effect on US dollar collections. GlobalData says operating cash flow was broadly flat on a like-for-like basis.
That makes the cash decline less severe than the headline percentage alone suggests, but it does not change the £31.3m of reported H1 free cash flow available for comparison with the period's capital deployment.
GlobalData's share repurchases are also visible in its earnings-per-share figures.
The weighted-average basic number of shares fell from 765.9m in H1 2025 to 705.7m this year, a reduction of approximately 7.9%. The diluted weighted-average count declined from 767.1m to 706.4m.
Adjusted profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the parent increased from £18.8m to £19.3m, or about 2.7%, while the company's rounded adjusted basic and diluted EPS increased from 2.5p to 2.7p, reported as growth of 8%.
The figures should not be used to assign an exact percentage of EPS growth to the buybacks because both the profit and EPS numbers are reported in rounded form. The direction of the effect, however, is clear: fewer weighted-average shares allow a given level of attributable earnings to produce more earnings per share.
GlobalData makes that connection itself. It says £19m was returned to shareholders through buybacks in the first half and that a further £30m tender completed after the period took FY26 capital returned to more than £49m, contributing to the increase in adjusted diluted EPS.
That matters when assessing the quality of the per-share growth. An 8% reported increase in adjusted EPS does not represent an 8% increase in adjusted profit attributable to GlobalData shareholders; the latter rose by only around 2.7% on the rounded figures supplied.
The financing story carries more weight because GlobalData's underlying growth remains considerably weaker than its reported headline numbers.
Reported revenue rose 4%, but underlying revenue growth was just 1%. The reported result benefited from acquisitions and a £3.3m catch-up adjustment relating to complimentary periods, while foreign exchange reduced revenue.
Adjusted EBITDA tells a similar story. The reported figure increased 5% to £54.8m, but GlobalData calculates underlying adjusted EBITDA of £51.9m compared with £52.1m a year earlier — effectively flat.
Management has also acknowledged that underlying revenue growth has been more muted than expected. For FY26, revenue is expected towards the lower end of the market-expectations range, while additional investment means adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be below market expectations.
That investment includes AI-native workflows, proprietary data and go-to-market capability, with management arguing that the spending should improve revenue quality, renewals and longer-term growth.
GlobalData therefore retains room to pursue its strategy. The group reports no covenant breaches and says its downside modelling leaves liquidity and covenant headroom. Deloitte's interim review also found nothing suggesting the directors had inappropriately adopted the going-concern basis of accounting.
The question raised by H1 is consequently not whether GlobalData can continue deploying capital. Its financing position indicates that it can.
The more important test is whether investment in acquisitions, sales capability, proprietary data and AI ultimately strengthens underlying growth while the group's financing costs remain higher. For now, the first-half figures show that capital allocation is no longer just a balance-sheet footnote: it is materially influencing how improvements in GlobalData's operating performance translate into earnings for shareholders.
