British publisher Pearson, owner of the Financial Times newspaper, suffered a fall in sales in the first nine months of the year, hit by adverse currency factors, it said on Friday. Sales dropped by six percent in the nine months of 2014, compared with a year earlier, Pearson added in a trading update which gave no profit figures. The performance was dented by the strength of the British pound against the US dollar and emerging market currencies.
At constant exchange rates, however, sales grew by one percent in the reporting period. Pearson repeated its full-year earnings guidance of between 62 pence and 67 pence per share. "We are reiterating our guidance for this year and, overall, we are performing well competitively through a period of change and in difficult markets," said chief executive John Fallon.