Financial Times parent reports strong results

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Ben Fenton of the Financial Times report that the financial newspaper’s parent, Pearson, reported strong third-quarter results, when revenue from the paper rose 14 percent.

Edgecliffe-Johnson and Fenton write, “The FT Group saw sales rise 11 per cent, led by an increase of 14 per cent at FT Publishing, which includes the Financial Times newspaper and FT.com. Sales at Penguin rose 3 per cent in the first nine months.

“In a note, Patrick Wellington, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the statement was ‘very positive’, particularly the guidance of underlying revenue growth of about 2-4 per cent in North American education. He noted a healthy balance sheet with a ratio of 1.2 times net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

“An analyst, who asked not to be named, said: ‘If you compare this with McGraw Hill, which started out the year much more positively than Pearson and has had to downgrade expectations twice since, it is a reassuring picture of the US education market. The FT result is obviously trend-bucking, but the question is how long it will last.'”

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