British publisher Pearson slipped into a slim first-half pre-tax loss due to delayed textbook sales and lower advertising at the Financial Times, the company said today.
But the normalised pre-tax loss of £1 million sterling, excluding goodwill amortisation and other items, was at the upper end of analyst expectations, which ranged from a loss of £42 million to a profit of £4 million.
A year ago, the company posted a profit of £26 million for the six months to June 30th.
Pearson, which typically makes much of its sales and almost all its profit in the second half of the year, said sales dropped to £1.67 billion from £1.81 billion a year earlier.
In its mainstay education publishing division, the company expects US school sales to grow at the low end of the 0-3 per cent range, and US college sales to grow in the 5-7 per cent range. But revenues and profits in its professional business are expected to be significantly lower from a year ago.
The company expects the FT Group, which includes the Financial Times, to deliver profits ahead of last year but said "corporate and financial advertising remains depressed".