(Adds comments from CEO and CFO interview)
By Nick Zieminski and Kenneth Li
NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters reported higher
quarterly sales and operating profit that fell slightly short of
Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, while cutting its full-year
sales outlook due to disruption to the global economy from the
coronavirus crisis.
The company, controlled by Canada's Thomson family, said it
was targeting a $100 million cost reduction program and noted it
has no debt due until 2023. It said it has enough liquidity for
the next 12 months and does not expect to change its dividend.
The news and information provider, parent of Reuters News,
reported a 2% rise in first quarter revenue to $1.52 billion,
helped by gains in its legal and corporates businesses, and said
operating profit rose 6% to $290 million.
Adjusted earnings of 48 cents a share were 1 cent below Wall
Street expectations, according to Refinitiv.
Thomson Reuters forecast 1%-2% total revenue
growth this year, below its February estimate of 4.5%-5.5%,
saying its business of selling information and software
solutions electronically and on a subscription basis was not
immune to the recent global economic downturn.
"We don't plan any layoffs at this point in time," Steve
Hasker, Chief Executive of Thomson Reuters, said in an
interview. "We are focused on investing in our business."
Michael Eastwood, Chief Financial Officer of Thomson
Reuters, said the company would continue to seek buyout
opportunities as part of a $2 billion acquisitions budget.
Executives said they would take a "methodical" approach to
evaluating potential targets that may come up at the end of this
year or early next year.
The company has spent $1.3 billion through the beginning of
the year and Hasker said any purchases would be considered
"bolt-ons" to existing businesses and not in new sectors.
REFINITIV SALE
The coronavirus pandemic has brought major economies to a
halt, pushed millions into unemployment as businesses shutter,
and emptied trading floors around the world as companies
scrambled to slow its spread among their workers.
Many of Thomson Reuters' own 24,000 employees have been
working remotely during the outbreak.
Reuters News revenues were flat at $155 million, while
organic revenues fell 4% due to COVID-19 related cancellations
of events in the Reuters Events business, the company said.
Thomson Reuters, whose executives have said that they were
aiming to cut discretionary expenses, also expects the sale of
data company Refinitiv to close in the second half of the year.
The London Stock Exchange said last month it was
committed to completing its $27-billion takeover of Refinitiv,
in which Thomson Reuters has a 45% stake, in the second half of
2020, with no plans to revise its savings targets as a deep
recession looms.
Thomson Reuters in February appointed former Nielsen
president Hasker as its new CEO, succeeding Jim Smith.
Smith, a former journalist who oversaw a period of major
change at the company, will stay on for a transition period and
become chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
(Writing by Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Jason Neely
and Alexander Smith)