Reuters Insider - UK Day Ahead: Pearson admits the FT is for sale

Cholamandalam Financial Holdings

23/07/2015 15:43

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 Source:             Thomson Reuters                                   
                                                                       
 Description:        The venerable pink paper could be worth £1        
                     billion.                                          
 
 
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)

                 Good afternoon. It's the City's favorite newspaper - and it could be worth GBP1 
billion. The owners of the Financial Times, Pearson, say they're in advanced 
discussions to sell the paper to a global digital news company - the buyer 
hasn't been named, but is rumored to be Bloomberg or German magnate Axel 
Springer. The Financial Times has been publishing since 1888, and has 720,000 
regular readers - 70% of them pay for a digital subscription, making up for 
print sales halving in the last decade. Pearson has owned the paper for 60 years
- and presents its half year earnings tomorrow. The sale news has given those 
shares a boost, they're up around 1% to GBP12.22 but the buyer remains a 
mystery. Well current suggestions seems to hint it was Axel Springer, so there's
that German element coming through. I think that's probably the most likely. 
Bloomberg always in the frame, has been in the frame for a number of years now. 
But of course, competition issues would come into play there very much and both 
the US and the European authorities would look a scant, I think, at Bloomberg's 
attempt to try and absorb such a major element of the financial media in Europe.
Results are also out tomorrow from Anglo American - in a tough context for 
miners, after falling demand in China has sent commodity prices 

tumbling. The company said last week it expects to write off between $3 billion 
and $4 billion in its first half results because a global glut of iron ore is 
pushing down prices. Iron ore was the company's biggest earner last year. 
Meanwhile, copper and diamond production have dropped, and Anglo American's 
platinum mines in South Africa have been hit by industrial unrest. Anglo 
American's shares fell 5.6% yesterday to a 13 year low - it's recovered a little
today to trade at around GBP8.20. We'll also get an interim management statement
from Vodafone on Friday - the mobile phone company announced a restructuring 
this week, including the departure of its current head of Europe. We'll find out
how that goes down with investors - they seem to be quite keen so far, that 

stock has risen 0.4% today. Overall then the FTSE is in the green this afternoon
- beating flat lining stocks in Europe. It was up 0.06% a short time ago - with 
Unilever one of the biggest risers after it reported strong quarterly sales, and
Aberdeen Asset Management far and away the worst performer after it saw net 
outflows of GBP9.9 billion in the last quarter. The company blames foreign 
currency movements for its weak results. UK retail sales fell unexpectedly in 
June - with shoppers buying fewer 

household goods, and less food and petrol. The 0.2% drop is disappointing for 
economists, especially as average prices are 2.9% lower than this time last 
year. Analysts had been expecting retail sales to do well, with recent data 
showing UK wages are picking up while inflation remains near zero. Weak sales 
figures strengthen the arguments of those arguing against an interest rate rise 
before the end of the year. And finally - Londoners are getting used to just 
swiping their contactless card to get on the Tube or pay for lunch - but they 
may not be completely secure. A Which magazine investigation claims its 
researchers were able to buy a GBP3,000 TV online with card information swiped 
from a contactless reader. Banks insist contactless card fraud is very rare - 
much lower than for ordinary cards. That's it for now. I'm Melanie Ralph and 
this is Reuters