Pearson Under Pressure To Sell Financial Times

Smith, who is in a legal battle with the Financial Times, is thought to have approached various parties about a bid, according to a report in the Times. It is argued that Pearson investors could enjoy a far greater financial return by selling the Financial Times and banking the proceeds.

However, according to this mornings Times, UK investment bank, has Collins Stewart played down takeover bids, with a spokesman for the bank saying: “There has been lots of interest expressed by the city institutions we talk to regularly, but Terry is not currently soliciting such a transaction.”

City analysts estimate the newspaper to be fetch more than £550 million if auctioned, despite losing £9 million last year.

After last passing the 500,000 copies mark (worldwide) in March 2002, the paper has seen sales slip back significantly. The six monthly figure released last week is 428,139. UK sales have tailed off from nearly 200,000 copies to around the 130,000 mark.

Last week, Pearson PLC announced the launch of a free afternoon version of the Financial Times, called FTpm.

The A4-sized freesheet will be available in print and online every afternoon from Monday to Friday, and will contain two sides of the day’s top business news stories, comment and analysis.

It will carry advertising but will also be used to attract readers to the website and the following day’s paper by promoting content.

Earlier this year, Pearson released its trading statement for 2004, revealing a drop in profit in the second half of the year, attributed to declines in advertising spending and paperback sales (see Financial Times Will Break Even For 2004).

Pearson reported that adjusted pre-tax profits fell from £410 million in 2003, to £386 million in 2004, with the company citing a weak performance at its book publishing division, Penguin, as the main cause.