NIQ Announces Strong Second Quarter 2026 Results

• Exceeded Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS guidance
• Delivered 8.0% reported revenue growth, including 5.8% organic constant currency ("OCC") growth, led by 8.3% Americas OCC growth
• Generated 5.7% Intelligence OCC growth and 6.1% Activation OCC growth; Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue eclipsed $3 billion
• Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million, for Adjusted EPS of $0.27
• Grew Adjusted EBITDA by 21.9% to $261.9 million and expanded Adjusted EBITDA margin by 270 bps to 23.3%
• Improved Unlevered free cash flow by $107.3 million and Levered free cash flow by $137.3 million to $74.1 million
• Raised full year 2026 financial guidance to 5.2% - 5.6% OCC revenue growth, 23.5% - 23.9% Adjusted EBITDA margin and $245M - $255M of levered free cash flow
• Achieved credit rating upgrade to B+ from B on improved cash generation from S&P Global Ratings

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NIQ Global Intelligence plc (NYSE: NIQ) (the “Company”, or “NIQ”), a leading global consumer intelligence company, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026.

Second Quarter 2026 Results

Revenue:

• Total revenue grew 8.0% year-over-year to $1,124.2 million. OCC revenue increased 5.8%, led by Americas, which grew 8.3%. EMEA delivered 4.9% growth while APAC returned to year-over-year growth, up 1.9%.
• Intelligence revenue (as reported) grew 7.6%, or 5.7% in OCC. Activation revenue growth (as reported) grew 9.9%, or 6.1% growth in OCC.
• Annualized Intelligence Subscription revenue grew 5.8% to $3,017.6 million with 105% Intelligence Subscription Net Dollar Retention and 99% Gross Dollar Retention.

Earnings:

• Net loss attributable to NIQ was $30.5 million and Adjusted net income improved to $78.7 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA grew 21.9% year-over-year to $261.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 270 basis points year-over-year to 23.3%.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $140.1 million, a $148.7 million improvement year-over-year.
• Unlevered free cash flow improved by $107.3 million to $129.1 million year-over-year. Levered free cash flow improved by $137.3 million to $74.1 million year-over-year. Improvement was driven by year-over-year increases in revenue flowing through to Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital improvement and lower interest expense from our debt pay down in Q3 2025 and a spread step-down in Q4 2025.

"Our second quarter results underscore the strength of NIQ's mission-critical role with global retailers and manufacturers, as we delivered our fifth consecutive quarterly beat since becoming a public company", said Jim Peck, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Both Intelligence and Activation OCC revenue growth accelerated, margins expanded by 270 basis points and free cash flow inflected positive. We see a healthy client demand environment and we are moving aggressively to capture significant AI opportunities. From launching our next wave of AI-powered capabilities Optiq, Bridge and Cadence, to engaging our ConnectAI Charter Program clients and growing pipeline, to strengthening our AI leadership team and partnerships, we are rapidly building powerful new ways for clients to capitalize on NIQ's proprietary, AI-ready intelligence. In doing so, we believe we are unlocking significant long-term revenue growth potential for NIQ."

"We are pleased to deliver another quarter of strong results that exceeded the top end of our guidance", added Mike Burwell, Chief Financial Officer. "Our raised full year 2026 outlook reflects Q2 outperformance as well as an ongoing healthy client demand environment. For the balance of 2026, we anticipate continued durable revenue growth, strong margin expansion and approximately $300 million of levered free cash flow generation in the second half of 2026 alone."

Summary Second Quarter 2026 & Recent Business Highlights

Key client developments, including:

• Closed 26 seven-figure wins, including three eight-figure deals, across new wins, renewals, upsells and competitive win-backs with clients citing NIQ's integrated "Full View" breadth and demonstrable data quality and strategic advice
• Delivered strong continued cross-sell including mid-teens percent Consumer Panel growth and eCommerce growth above 30%
• Expanded Retailer relationships & offerings:
  • Product & AI Innovation: Launched AI-driven Spaceman Automation, designed to allow retailers to build planograms via natural language, and rolled out an enhanced Retail Pricing Analytics suite in North America, with international expansion to follow
  • Client Wins: Signed a seven-figure multi-year renewal and consumer panel expansion to deliver Full View to a Swiss grocery retailer; landed our first Activate retail media client, Unlimitail; and secured a four-year extension and expansion with a leading global convenience retailer to deploy NIQ’s AI-driven analytics across 12+ countries
  • Collaboration & Cooperation Growth: Expanded Retail Analytics collaborations with a major European grocery retailer (first multi-country Europe deal), and a Thai grocery retailer; Previously announced Ulta Beauty cooperation in the U.S. reinforces the Full View™ of Beauty channel, expanding NIQ’s U.S. Beauty coverage by over 12%
• Reinforced APAC growth strategy:
  • Expanded emerging channel coverage in China and Southeast Asia by acquiring YiMian, a leading data & insights business
  • INTAGE HD partnership is designed to expand coverage and access to retail measurement insights between Japan and global markets
• Named 2026 Snowflake Retail & Consumer Goods Product Partner of the Year for helping clients transform fragmented data into trusted, AI-ready intelligence, powering faster decisions and measurable growth
• Client Net Promoter Score (NPS) increased to all-time high of 52 in June 2026, up +7 points versus June 2025

AI-native product launches from NIQ Commerce Lab, including:

• ConnectAI Suite, NIQ’s data and AI infrastructure foundation, designed to help organizations operationalize trusted market intelligence across enterprise AI environments and workflows through harmonization, semantic intelligence, APIs and AI-ready integrations.
• Connected Content & Product Intelligence – A unified, intelligent content layer that helps brands and retailers manage, activate and optimize product information across commerce ecosystems
• Optiq Suite (Chat & Mobile), an AI-powered insights assistant and agent experience available on NIQ Discover built to address key client persona use-cases across Account Performance, Pricing, Distribution and Shopper Analysis
• Optiq Bridge – Designed to connect NIQ intelligence directly into enterprise AI ecosystems, agents and workflows
• NIQ Cadence – GenAI-native Marketing Effectiveness operating system intended to help marketers continuously measure, optimize and activate performance
• Announced a strategic collaboration with Lula Commerce, an AI-powered ecommerce platform built to help convenience retailers launch and scale digital commerce experiences more quickly and easily using trusted content
• Grew our AI-powered Connect data engine at approximately 4.3 trillion data records per week, up 23% versus a 3.5T add rate in Q2 2025

AI-enabled cost efficiency, including:

• Ongoing integration of advanced technology, including AI, continues to support the Company's 2026 Restructuring Program, which remains on track to deliver anticipated annualized cost savings of approximately $70 million to $80 million (refer to "2026 Restructuring Program" discussion below)

Financial Summary & Operating Metrics

Second Quarter 2026 Segment Results

Second Quarter Revenue Discussion

Revenue increased 8.0% on an as-reported basis, while OCC revenue grew 5.8%. Our Q2 OCC growth was driven primarily by value‑based pricing as well as strong upselling and cross‑selling of new capabilities and solutions, and, to a lesser extent, penetration in adjacent and high‑growth markets.

Americas: Total Americas segment revenue (as reported) increased by $49.1 million, or 12.1%. Intelligence revenue (as reported), grew 10.6% driven by strong client retention, value-based pricing and continued demand for new capabilities and solutions, including Consumer Panel and eCommerce offerings. Activation revenue (as reported) grew 17.9%, reflecting strong demand for Analytics, Innovation and Retailer Analytics solutions, as well as ongoing cross-sell and upsell activity across the client base. Inorganic items contributed an additional 0.8% to reported growth, while foreign exchange contributed 3.0%. OCC growth was 8.3%.

EMEA: Total EMEA segment revenue (as reported) increased by $30.9 million, or 6.5%. Intelligence revenue (as reported), grew 7.5% driven by value-based pricing, strong renewal activity and continued adoption of new capabilities and solutions, including Omnishopper and eCommerce offerings. Activation revenue (as reported) grew 1.2%, reflecting continued client demand for Analytics and Innovation solutions. Foreign exchange contributed 1.6% to reported growth. OCC growth was 4.9%.

APAC: Total APAC segment revenue (as reported) increased by $3.4 million, or 2.2%, driven by a 10.2% increase in Activation revenue (as reported), reflecting stronger demand for Analytics and Innovation solutions and improving commercial momentum across the region. Intelligence revenue (as reported) decreased 0.5%, reflecting a meaningful sequential improvement from Q1, driven by continued penetration of adjacent high-growth markets and expanding retailer partnerships. Foreign exchange contributed 0.3% to reported growth. OCC growth was 1.9%.

Liquidity, Capital Resources & Recent Financings

As of June 30, 2026 the Company had cash and cash equivalents of $416.6 million and $747.5 million of available capacity under its Revolver, for a total of $1,164.1 million of available liquidity.

For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash provided by operating activities was $76.5 million, compared to cash used in operating activities of $162.2 million in 2025, a $238.7 million improvement, primarily driven by year-over-year improvements in Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital and interest expense, offset by increased year-over-year restructuring expense.

For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash used in investing activities was $125.0 million, compared with $66.7 million in 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash paid for capital expenditures was $125.6 million, compared with $117.3 million in 2025. Cash paid for capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue represented 5.7% and 5.8%, respectively, for the six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, cash used in financing activities was $45.7 million, compared with cash provided by financing activities of $204.3 million in 2025.

Free cash flow for the six months ended June 30, 2026 increased by $230.4 million compared to the six months ended June 30, 2025 driven primarily by year-over-year increases in revenue flowing through to Adjusted EBITDA, net working capital improvement and lower interest expense as a result of 2025 IPO proceeds being used to pay down debt and a spread step-down beginning in Q3 2025, offset by the impact of increased year-over-year restructuring costs.

The average unhedged and hedged interest rates at the end of the second quarter of 2026 were 4.8% and 5.4%, respectively, which resulted in a total weighted average rate of 5.0%. The convergence of the all-in rates is due to the lower spreads post refinancing and the declining interest rate environment. Our interest rate hedging program is intended not only to provide protection against dramatic interest rate increases but also to allow us to participate meaningfully in an improving interest rate environment with greater predictability of cash flows.

Reorganization Pursuant to IPO

On July 22, 2025, in connection with the IPO, NIQ became the direct parent of various entities that were created by Advent International to acquire the business of NIQ from Nielsen Holdings, including AI PAVE Dutchco I B.V. (“AI PAVE”) and the indirect parent of other intermediate holding companies, including AI PAVE Dutchco II B.V., AI PAVE Dutchco III B.V. (collectively, with AI PAVE, the “AI PAVE Entities”), and Intermediate Dutch Holdings B.V., a private company with limited liability organized under the laws of the Netherlands (“Dutch Holdings”) (the “Reorganization”). All holders of equity interests in AI PAVE became shareholders of NIQ.

The “Company,” “NIQ,” “we,” “us” and “our” means, prior to the Reorganization, Dutch Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries and, after the Reorganization, NIQ Global Intelligence plc and its consolidated subsidiaries. Prior to the effects of the Reorganization and IPO, the unaudited consolidated financial statements present the historical financial information of Dutch Holdings. Subsequent to the Reorganization and IPO, the financial statements were recast to reflect the consolidated financial statements of NIQ Global Intelligence plc and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Dutch Holdings and the AI PAVE Entities, as a transaction between entities under common control. The recast presentation is effective for the financial statements as of and for the earliest periods presented. All subsequent reporting periods, including the accompanying consolidated financial statements herein, will similarly reflect the recast presentation.

2026 Restructuring Program

In February 2026, the Company approved an incremental cost realignment program (the “2026 Program”) intended to further streamline the organization and drive operational efficiency. The 2026 Program is designed to generate additional annualized cost savings of approximately $70 million to $80 million by the end of fiscal year 2026.

The 2026 Program supports the Company’s ongoing efforts to enhance margin performance through continued optimization of its workforce, enhancements to its sales organization and other support functions and simplification of overall business processes. Investments in automation and artificial intelligence (“AI”) are anticipated to accelerate the Company’s optimization efforts as it begins its journey to operationalize these digital tools throughout the organization. Collectively, these actions are expected to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity. The 2026 Program is intended to further reduce costs primarily within selling, general and administrative expenses.

The Company expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of approximately $65 million to $75 million, the substantial majority of which would result in cash expenditures. The Company expects that execution of the 2026 Program will occur primarily in the first half of 2026, subject to local laws and consultation requirements. As of year-to-date fiscal 2026, the Company has incurred approximately $70 million of restructuring charges associated with the 2026 Program.

Third Quarter and Full Year 2026 Outlook

Our outlook is based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change, many of which are outside of the control of the Company. The extent to which external factors affect our business and results of operations are inherently uncertain and depends on numerous evolving factors that we may not be able to accurately predict. There can be no assurance that the Company will achieve the results expressed by this guidance.

• Third quarter & Full year 2026 guidance ranges (except for OCC revenue) include the YiMian acquisition completed on June 30, 2026.
• Full year 2026 free cash flow guidance range implies $300 million of free cash flow in the second half of 2026.
• Constant currency growth rates assume foreign currency exchange rates are consistent between years. This allows financial results to be evaluated without the impact of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.
• Organic constant currency growth rates are constant currency growth excluding inorganic growth. Inorganic growth represents growth attributable to the first twelve months of activity for recent business acquisitions.
• Refer to the "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" section of this Earnings Release regarding reconciliations of the above non-GAAP financial measures.

Earnings Webcast Information

In conjunction with this release, NIQ will host a conference call and webcast today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss business results for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The live webcast and a replay of the webcast will be available at the Investor Relations section of NIQ’s website: investors.nielseniq.com.

About NIQ (NYSE: NIQ)

NIQ is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering comprehensive understanding of consumer buying behavior and helping clients identify new pathways to growth. Our global reach spans 90 countries covering approximately 82% of the world’s population, more than half of global gross domestic product, and more than $7.4 trillion in global consumer spend as of December 31, 2025. With a holistic retail read and comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View™. For more information, please visit www.niq.com.

Availability of Information on NIQ’s Website

Investors and others should note that NIQ routinely announces material information to investors and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the NIQ Investor Relations website. While not all of the information that the Company posts to the NIQ Investor Relations website is of a material nature, some information could be deemed to be material. Accordingly, the Company encourages investors, the media and others interested in NIQ to review the information that it shares on investors.nielseniq.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by references to future periods or the use of words such as "intend," "designed," “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “could,” “may,” “will,” "would," “believe,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “goal,” "outlook," "guidance," "position," "envision," "predict," "target," "potential," "should," "continue," "contemplate," “project,” and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various matters including financial guidance and projected estimates including expectations regarding revenue, leverage, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted EPS and free cash flow; statements about the Company’s financial position, operating results, liquidity and capital allocation priorities, including growth-focused capital expenditures, investments in AI capabilities, potential tuck-in acquisitions, share repurchases or other return of capital and the future availability and use of our Revolver and other financing arrangements; statements regarding the 2026 Restructuring Program and the Transformation Program, including expected annualized cost savings, anticipated pre-tax restructuring charges, timing and execution of realization, expected improvements in efficiency, customer satisfaction, product innovation and productivity; and statements regarding expected annualized cost savings and timing of realization, anticipated one-time charges and cash expenditures, the Company’s ability to achieve margin expansion, improve operating efficiency and generate future cash flow, the impact of technology-enabled initiatives including automation and AI on long-term competitiveness, including expectations that AI will strengthen the Company's competitive position, widen its competitive moat, accelerate innovation and structurally lower its cost base; the development, launch, capabilities, adoption, monetization and expected client benefits of new products and solutions; the contribution of new or expanded partnerships to future results; the Company's interest rate hedging strategy and its expected impact on cash flow predictability, and the Company’s strategic priorities and future financial performance.

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Media: media@nielseniq.com