PSO Pearson Plc

   By Adria Calatayud 
 

Pearson PLC (PSON.LN) said Friday that pretax profit rose 18% in 2018, as cost cuts and business sales offset challenges at its key U.S. higher-education business.

The FTSE 100 education company made a pretax profit of 498 million pounds ($649.7 million) for last year compared with GBP421 million in 2017, it said. Net profit rose 45% to GBP588 million, boosted by a one-off tax benefit, Pearson said.

Adjusted operating profit--Pearson's preferred earnings metric--fell to GBP546 million from GBP576 million, the company said. Pearson had guided for adjusted operating profit to come in at between GBP540 million and GBP545 million. On an underlying basis, adjusted operating profit rose 8%, Pearson said.

Revenue fell to GBP4.13 billion in 2018 from GBP4.51 billion a year earlier, Pearson said. Revenue on an underlying basis declined 1%, dragged by weakness at the company's U.S. higher education unit, which posted a 5% drop in underlying revenue.

The company confirmed its guidance for this year and raised its final dividend by 8.3% to 13 pence a share.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayudvaello@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2019 02:34 ET (07:34 GMT)

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