Reuters' revenues climb ahead of takeover

Thursday, 6 March 2008 12:21

British media group Reuters said today that revenues were higher in 2007 and gave an upbeat outlook for this year ahead of its agreed takeover by Canada's Thomson Corporation.

Revenues rose 7% to £2.6 billion sterling last year, Reuters said in a final annual earnings release before completion of the Thomson deal. The results were in line with market expectations.

Net profit, however, fell by a quarter to £227m in 2007 but the figure was skewed because Reuters benefited in 2006 from the disposal of its stake in online business information service Factiva. Operating profit rose 14.8% to £292m and Reuters said it expected first quarter underlying revenue growth to be around 9%, aided by 'strong sales momentum.'

The Thomson-Reuters deal received regulatory approvals last month and was expected to close on April 17, Reuters said.

'Reuters has delivered a signature final year as a standalone company,' CEO Tom Glocer said. 'We set ourselves ambitious goals for 2007, did not waver from these and despite significant integration activities and a volatile market we have exceeded all our targets', he said.

Thomson agreed last year to buy Reuters for £8.7 billion, creating a combined business called Thomson Reuters that will be led by Glocer.

The deal will create the biggest provider of financial data to trading rooms, overtaking current market leader and US rival Bloomberg.

Along with the privately held US group Bloomberg, Thomson and Reuters currently dominate the market for providing financial data to banks, investment funds and other financial services firms.