Reuters Group Plc, the financial-data company being acquired by Thomson Corp, said net income fell 26 percent in 2007 because of costs for the takeover and as profit in the year-earlier period was boosted by selling assets.
Net income decreased to 227 million pounds (US$452 million) from 305 million pounds a year earlier, the London-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Sales advanced 1.5 percent to 2.61 billion pounds.
The results are the last for Reuters as an independent company.
Buying Reuters, a 156-year-old news organization with 2,400 journalists in more than 130 countries, will increase Toronto-based Thomson's sales to US$11 billion and triple its share of the financial data market to 34 percent.
Thomson owns the Westlaw legal database and TradeWeb bond-trading network.
"Early indications for 2008 are encouraging despite the uncertain market environment, with strong sales momentum reflecting the robustness of Reuters business mix," according to the Reuters statement.
Sales, excluding currency swings, acquisitions and disposals, will rise by about nine percent in the first quarter, the company said.
"The forecast for the first quarter is very upbeat, but the turmoil in credit markets and job cuts at many banks will hurt Reuters' sales at some point," ABN Amro analyst Paul Gooden told Bloomberg News.
"The question is only whether it will be a soft landing or a hard landing."
He predicts sales will grow one percent in 2009 after a five-percent boost in 2008.