Publishing group Pearson PLC on Monday posted first half net profit of 44 million pounds ($72 million), reversing a loss from last year, and raised its guidance for the year _ helping the stock become the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares, AP reported. The company's share price closed up 12 percent at 679 pence ($11.15) in a largely flat market overall. The first half profit for the publisher of the Financial Times newspaper and Penguin Books contrasted with a loss of 49 million pounds a year ago. Meanwhile, the company said pretax profit was up 12.7 percent at 62 million pounds against last year's 55 million, beating analysts' expectations for a more modest increase. The company said it was currently trading ahead of expectations as a stronger business performance offset the negative impact of the falling dollar _ Pearson makes 60 percent of its revenues in the U.S. but has to transfer them back to Britain where it is domiciled. The pound has clawed back to the $1.64 level having sunk to near 24-year low of just above $1.35 in February amid mounting worries about the state of the British economy and the level of government borrowing. As a result, the company said it was effectively upgrading its earnings guidance for 2009 by 3 pence a share and that full-year adjusted earnings per share are still expected to be at, or above, the 2008 level of 57.7 pence. In the first half of the year, Pearson posted a 41 percent increase in adjusted earnings per share to 7.9 pence. Pearson said its guidance assumes that the current sterling rate of $1.64 prevails in the second half of the year. «Market conditions are tough and may stay that way but we are confident that we will perform well this year and next,» said Marjorie Scardino, Pearson's chief executive. Despite the global economic recession, Pearson managed to post a 1 percent increase in first-half sales to 2.4 billion pounds, when currency factors are stripped out and a 22 percent increase when currency changes were not removed. It said FT Group, the division that runs the Financial Times, and Penguin traded in line with expectations but that the education division _ Pearson's biggest business by sales _ traded ahead of forecasts and gained market share. Pearson makes most of its sales and profits in the second half of the year due to the seasonal phasing of its education and consumer books division and its optimistic assessment of prospects generated support in the markets, especially as it raised its interim dividend by 3.4 percent to 12.2 pence a share. «Pearson posted encouraging results and investors acknowledged it,» said David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners.
