Information and news company Thomson Reuters is buoyant with 10 per cent revenue growth as it reported its last set of results as separate companies for the first quarter of 2008. Significant savings have already been made by both organisations, and greater efficiencies are expected from the merger, which has now been completed.
Thomson Reuters said that two separate savings programmes, THOMSONplus and Core Plus at Thomson and Reuters respectively had provided the company with combined savings of $300 million. By 2011 it is expected that integration of the two companies will provide savings of $750m. Tom Glocer, former head of Reuters and now chief executive of the two companies described the savings and company performance as a demonstration of its “robustness”.
Canadian company Thomson Corporation completed its acquisition of Reuters on April 17, 2008. Had the deal gone through on January 1, 2008 the revenue for the combined company would have been $3.3 billion, an increase of 12 per cent over the same period in 2007.
With the deal completed, the company expects revenue growth of between six and eight per cent for 2008. In addition it expects at least $1.2 billion in savings to be achieved by 2011.
Global news and financial information agency Reuters increased its revenue by 13 per cent to $1.4 billion. Reuters benefited from increasing demand for information on foreign exchanges, commodities, energy information, business information and emerging markets information. Thomson Scientific, which provides internet based information services for major research organisations, saw revenues rise by nine per cent to $163m through organic growth, and four per cent from acquisitions such as some specialist pharmaceutical companies it added to its portfolio. A new interface to its Web of Science platform, one of the most highly used scientific information tools, also benefited the division.
The Thomson Legal and Professional Practices divisions also reported healthy revenue growth, nine per cent and six per cent respectively. Its Healthcare division, the youngest in the Thomson family, saw revenues increase by three per cent to $95m in the first quarter.
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With the acquisition being completed in the first quarter corporate expenses for the group increased by $40m to $131m, mainly due to costs related to the acquisition. Thomson said the THOMSONplus efficiencies programme had offset these costs.
Thomson announced its acquisition of Reuters in 2007 in what was one of the largest deals of the year. Both companies are predominantly technology driven, delivering financial and scientific information, as well as technology services for manipulating and managing information. By acquiring Reuters Thomson leap-frogged US based rival Bloomberg to become the world’s largest provider of financial information to banks and financial services.
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