British publishing group Pearson says is trading ahead of its expectations, allowing it to keep its full-year outlook in spite of the negative impact of currency movements.
Pearson reported strong earnings and flat underlying sales for the first half, as an improvement in revenue at its educational publications business - the world's largest - offset declines at the FT Group and at book division Penguin.
The company said a weaker US dollar meant it was effectively upgrading by 3p its 2009 guidance for keeping adjusted earnings per share at at least 57.7p. Its forecast assumes the current rate of exchange with sterling prevails in the second half.
The company said the impact of US economic stimulus measures on its North American education business remained unclear, but it expected to continue outperforming a declining US school publishing market.
Pearson said it expected FT subscriptions to withstand economic pressure, after the FT Group reported a 4% underlying revenue decline and a 13% fall in underlying profit for the first half. Penguin's underlying adjusted operating profit fell 23% in the first half.
Pearson, which makes the majority of sales and profits in the second half, when the new academic year and the Christmas holiday drive sales, reported first-half sales of £2.4 billion. Underlying adjusted operating profit rose 21% to £158m.
