21st Apr 2006 07:00
Pearson PLC21 April 2006 21 April 2006 AGM trading update Pearson, the international education and information company, is today providinga trading update at its Annual General Meeting. Pearson has made a good start to 2006. We are trading in line with expectationsand expect to achieve strong underlying earnings growth, good cash generationand a further significant improvement in return on invested capital. As always,our sales and profits will be concentrated in the second half of the year. Glen Moreno, chairman, said: "2005 was a very good year for Pearson with substantially higher earnings,return on capital and cash returns to shareholders. We are encouraged by oursustained momentum in the early part of 2006, and we are in good shape todeliver positive results for customers and shareholders year after year." Pearson Education achieved record results in 2005 and we expect sales growth inthe 3-5% range this year with margins improving further. In School, our majorstate textbook adoption campaigns have begun well and our market-leading testingbusiness continues to gain share, winning long-term contracts in California,Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Utah. In HigherEducation we continue to benefit from our leadership position and from our newpublishing, customisation and technology. Our recent acquisition of EET, creatorof the most popular online assessment and tutorial programme for US collegephysics students, complements our groundbreaking online learning platforms inmaths, economics and psychology. In Professional, we expect good growth intesting and Government Solutions to more than offset weak market conditions fortechnology publishing. Penguin's strong publishing performance has continued into 2006 with a string ofbestsellers and award-winners in its major markets. We continue to expectPenguin to grow at a similar rate to 2005, with margins improving steadily as webenefit from efficiency gains. The Financial Times Group improved profits by more than one-third in 2005 and weexpect a further significant increase this year. IDC expects another good year,benefiting from similar business conditions to 2005, strong organic growth andthe contribution of recent acquisitions. The Financial Times is performing wellas circulation improves (up 4%), advertising revenue increases (up 13%) and wecontinue to convert at least 80% of our advertising gains into profit. Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "We have begun the year in the same fine form that we enjoyed throughout 2005.We expect 2006 to be another good year for Pearson as we continue to increasemargins and grow ahead of our markets." Ends For more information: Luke Swanson/ Simon Mays-Smith/ Deborah Lincoln + 44 (0) 20 7010 2310 Notes to editors Pearson's AGM takes place today at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre,Broad Sanctuary, London SW1P 3EE at 12 noon. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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