Publishing group Pearson has announced it is in “advanced discussions” with an unnamed party over the sale of its Financial Times newspaper group.
The company said it had “noted recent press speculation” surrounding the possible sale of the FT, but added that there was “no certainty” that the discussions would lead to a deal.
Rumours regarding the sale emerged on Monday.
Shares in the group jumped more than 2% on the news.
Pearson’s statement added that it would make a further announcement “if and when appropriate”.
Some reports have suggested that Pearson could sell the newspaper group for around £1bn. Publishers linked to a purchase include Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
Pearson, which owns a large stake in the book publisher Penguin Random House, has long been thought ready to sell the newspaper.
‘Counterintuitive’
The publishing group has been moving increasingly into the provision of education services in North America and in emerging markets. It has previously said it remained committed to the newspaper because of its strong brand.
The identity of the company Pearson is in discussions with has not be named, but a source told Reuters that the group had decided to sell the newspaper and website to a “global, digital news company”.
Three years ago Pearson, which has owned the Financial Times for the past 60 years, denied rumours that it would sell its business newspaper to the financial data firm Thomson Reuters.
As well as the Financial Times paper, the FT group includes Financial Times Business, the group’s business-to-business publishing group, a joint venture with the Russian business newspaper Vedemosti, as well as a 50% stake in the Economist magazine.
Jasper Lawler of CMC markets said the talks were somewhat “counterintuitive”, given that a spokesman for Pearson’s had previously said selling the newspaper was not part of the group’s strategy.
Digital subscriptions
He added that the Financial Times was one of the few newspaper websites that had managed to transition well into a subscriber based – or paywall – business model.
The Financial Times, which launched in 1888, has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 720,000, 70% of its readership is generated through its website.
The newspaper’s digital subscriptions overtook print circulation in 2012, while tablets and smartphones account for about half of traffic to the website.
The announcement of the sale talks comes a day before the release of Pearson’s annual results.
Last year the group, which gets 90% of its revenues from its educational book publishing business, reported a 12.5% fall in net profit to £471m as a result of restructuring costs and currency fluctuations.
BBC
