Former Financial Times owner Pearson reports sales fall in first quarter as it seeks 4,000 job cuts
Education company Pearson's share price was down slightly this morning after it reported a four per cent fall in sales in the first quarter of 2016.
The figures
Pearson, which sold the Financial Times and Economist last year, reported its revenue had fallen nine per cent year on year during the period.
The company said headline sales were down six per cent, or four per cent in underlying terms.
Read more: Pearson shareholders are really pleased it's cutting jobs
In January, Pearson announced plans to cut 4,000 jobs, representing 10 per cent of its workforce.
In its interim management statement today, it said half of the 4,000 have now been notified, with the others expect to be informed in the second half of the year.
Pearson expects to incur restructuring costs of £320m in 2016 to generate annualised savings of approximately £350m.
At its annual general meeting today, Pearson said it was proposing an unchanged final dividend of 34p, giving a total dividend of 52p, up two per cent.
Why it's interesting
Last year, Pearson sold the Financial Times to Japanese company Nikkei for £844m.
Read more: Sustained challenges place Pearson at a loss
It then exited news publishing altogether when it sold its stake in the Economist magazine to Italian investor group Exor for £469m.
In its trading update today, Pearson noted that the Financial Times, Economist and PowerSchool, which was also sold last year, contributed £40m to operating profit in the first half of 2015.
Pearson's share price was down 0.4 per cent to 811p at around 9am on Friday morning.
[stockChart code="PSON" date="2016-04-29 09:07"]
What the company said
Chief executive John Fallon:
Pearson has had a solid start to the year, in line with our expectations. We are making good progress on our simplification plan and in our work to have a bigger impact on student learning, which will in turn support our future growth.