Pearson trading in line with expectations

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The company said that it expected another good year of profit growth in its Education department, and that it was seeing healthy demand for instructional materials and educational services in the US.

Pearson said that the integration of its Harcourt Assessment business was on track. The company said that its business outside the US was also continuing to perform well.

The company said that it expected continued profit growth at the Financial Times Group, following sustained growth in subscription, circulation and advertising revenues for the Financial Times newspaper.

Publisher Penguin was also reported as making a strong start to the year. Pearson said it expected Penguin to achieve double digit profit margins in 2008.

Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of Pearson, said, "Most of our trading lies ahead of us, but the start we've made to the year makes us confident that this will be another good one for Pearson. Our strategy, and the changes we've made to accelerate it, produced record results last year and made Pearson a more resilient company. We expect another year of good earnings growth, even in these more uncertain economic conditions."

Pearson also announced on Friday that it had appointed CK Prahalad as a non-executive director and Will Ethridge as an executive director. Both appointments are to take effect on 1 May 2008.