Thomson Reuters reports higher sales as it sells stakes in businesses
Thomson Reuters reported higher revenue growth than expected today as the company sold off stakes in other businesses.
The news and information conglomerate reported revenue growth of four per cent, jumping to $1.7bn (£1.4bn), beating analyst estimates, the firm said in a quarterly update.
The company also earned $2.3bn (£1.8bn) from the sell-off of 24.5 million shares in London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in the quarter. It said $2.2bn (£1.8bn) would be returned to shareholders using proceeds from the sale.
The conglomerate, which owns Reuters news agency, also completed a $2bn (£1.6bn) share buyback programme, returning more capital to investors, with $718 million (£575 million) repurchased in the first quarter.
The company, however, cut its expected total revenue growth for 2023 from between 5.5 – 6 per cent, to between 3.5 – 4 per cent to account for the sale of its majority stake in the seller of business management software, Elite.
“While we acknowledge elevated macroeconomic uncertainty, our underlying business is resilient, and we are largely maintaining our 2023 outlook,” Steve Hasker, Thomson Reuters president and chief executive, said.
He added: “We are also excited about recent developments in AI, which we believe will provide plentiful opportunities to better serve our customers as we continue to invest in their future.”
Hasker told Reuters news agency in an interview yesterday that the company plans to spend $100 million on an annual run rate basis on AI, adding that the company would start adding generative AI — technology that can generate new content from data sets — to its products in the second half of 2023.