Pearson Trades in Line; Books Earnings Loss

By Simon Zekaria

LONDON--Education specialist Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) Friday said it is trading in line with its expectations and reiterated its 2016 guidance, adding that it goals to 2018 are unchanged.

For the half year ended June 30 Pearson said it made a pretax loss of GBP306 million ($403 million), compared with a loss of GBP132 million a year earlier.

Sales on an adjusted basis fell 7% year-over-year to GBP1.87 billion.

Stripping out exceptional and other one-off items, the adjusted operating profit was GBP15 million compared with GBP54 million.

It expects to report adjusted operating profit before restructuring costs of between GBP580 million and GBP620 million in 2016.

It said if current exchange rates persist until the end of 2016 the earnings per share guidance range will increase by approximately 4 pence.

It recommended a dividend of 18 pence, unchanged from a year earlier and in line with previous guidance, it said.

Pearson expects at least GBP800 million operating profit by 2018.

 
--Write to Simon Zekaria at [e-mail] 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2016 02:32 ET (06:32 GMT)

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