Reuters, the British news and financial information provider, on Tuesday reported a 4,4% drop in core subscription revenue to 528-million pounds ($947 million) during the third quarter from the same period of last year.
Reuters had itself forecast subscription income, or underlying core recurring revenue, to fall by 5% during the third quarter.
In its trading update, the group gave a better-than-expected forecast for the fourth quarter, saying that the decline in subscription revenue was expected to be around 3%, against analysts’ consensus for a drop of 4%.
”Reuters made good progress towards recovery this quarter,” group chief executive Tom Glocer said in a statement.
”Despite uncertain market conditions, gross sales outpaced cancellations during the quarter for the first time since the first quarter in 2001.”
Full-year core recurring revenue was expected to decline by close to 5,5% on an underlying basis, Reuters said.
Glocer said the group was operating in a ”less favourable” market environment than at the beginning of the year.
”The US is uncertain ahead of the [presidential] election — there’s a lot less volume in the equity market, for example,” Glocer told a conference call with reporters.
Reuters’ core revenue, making up about 93% of total group revenue, comes from sales of screens to banks, brokerages and fund managers.
Reuters is recovering from a difficult past few years as banks, brokers and other financial firms have sought to cut costs and orders for the group’s services. – Sapa-AFP