British news and financial information giant Reuters on Thursday posted a modest 1,5% rise in underlying third-quarter revenues.
Reuters said recurring revenues rose to £574-million ($1,025-billion) in the three months to September 30, 2005, compared with the same period last year.
Recurring revenues, the best measure of underlying demand for Reuters’ data and news terminals, had been in steady decline since mid-2001, after massive falls on global stock exchanges produced huge job cuts in the financial services industry.
Reuters had posted its first quarter of underlying revenue growth since 2001 in the second quarter of the year.
”Today’s results reflect a solid third-quarter performance for our core business,” said chief executive Tom Glocer in a statement accompanying the results.
”We have further enhanced the core by releasing significant product upgrades this quarter that prepare us well for 2006.”
Total turnover rose one percent to £611-million in the third quarter, compared with £566-million for the year-earlier figure, in line with expectations.
That was partly thanks to the acquisition of financial data group Telerate, which was completed in June.
Reuters said that the integration of Moneyline Telerate, a global provider of real-time financial information, was ”proceeding well, with strong revenue performance in [the] first full quarter since acquisition”.
Glocer added that the group had made ”good early progress” in expanding into new areas, such as electronic trading and high value content, and had made inroads into Brazilian and Chinese markets.
Meanwhile, the group repeated its forecasts for further modest growth for the second half of the year.
”Reuters confirms that it expects underlying recurring revenue to grow between one and two percent in the second half of 2005, in line with guidance issued at its interim results in July,” the group said. – Sapa-AFP