Pearson sees profits fall as it restructures

Education group Pearson saw its half-year profits tumble as the business continues its restructuring programme.

It reported adjusted operating profit of £15m ($20m, €18m) for its first half of the year to 30 June, down from £54m a year ago due to lower sales and higher IT costs.

The firm said its trading was in line with its expectations, and maintained its full-year guidance.

Pearson agreed to sell the Financial Times to Japanese rival Nikkei for £844m last July, as the group concentrates on its global education business.

The FTSE 100 company has warned on profits four times in three years since chief executive John Fallon took the helm.

Fallon said: "It is still relatively early in the year, and we have two big trading quarters in education ahead of us. Nonetheless we are trading in line with our 2016 expectations, and making progress toward our target of £800m or more of operating profit by 2018."

As part of its restructuring the group has notified 3,450 of the staff it plans to axe, in total it has targeted 4,000 redundancies.

The firm expects incur turnaround costs of approximately £320m this year, but adds its measures should lead to £350m of savings by 2017.