Publisher Pearson today said it is on target to hit its full-year profit forecasts as it reported a fledgling recovery in advertising at its flagship newspaper, the Financial Times.
In a trading statement ahead of the company's annual meeting later today, Pearson said it expects to make what it called "underlying progress" on earnings and cash returns in 2004.
The following year will see a "significant acceleration" of its financial performance, it added.
Year-to-date advertising revenues at the Financial Times, which in March were down 4 per cent are flat compared with the same period 12 months ago, and forward bookings are nudging ahead.
Analysts currently estimate unchanged advertising revenues for the first half, rising to growth of 7 per cent for the second six months of the year.
In the same statement, Pearson forecast sales at its US higher education business would rise 4 to 6 per cent in 2004, out-performing the wider market.
"We continue to expect underlying progress in 2004 and, looking further ahead, the trading prospects for Pearson are better than at any time in the past three years," chairman Mr Dennis Stevenson will tell the company's AGM later.
"Business advertising revenues appear to be stabilising, we have a solid base of new testing contracts and the 2005 US school market will be very strong."