The Thomson Corporation has reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2005.
Revenues rose 10% to $2.06 billion in the second quarter as a result of growth in existing businesses, contributions from acquisitions and favorable currency translation.
Earnings for the quarter were $0.46 per share compared to $0.29 per share in the second quarter of 2004. After adjusting for discontinued operations, one-time items and the normalization of the quarterly effective tax rate, underlying earnings were $0.24 per share in 2005 compared to $0.23 per share in the previous-year period.
“Our businesses showed continued broad-based strength in the quarter as each of our market groups achieved accelerated organic revenue growth as well as operating profit increases. Overall, organic revenue growth was four percent in the second quarter or double the year-over-year growth in the first quarter. Importantly, revenue growth is driving solid underlying profit growth. However, several items affected the year-over-year profit comparison, notably an insurance recovery last year and a higher effective tax rate in the current quarter. Excluding these items, operating profit and EPS grew at double digits. Cash flow growth was also very strong in the quarter,” said Richard J. Harrington, president and CEO of Thomson. Mr. Harrington also noted the company expects its full-year effective tax rate to be slightly lower than 2004.
“Looking ahead, we expect our operations to continue to perform well and we remain on track to achieve our long-term financial targets. We are confident we will have another year of solid financial results,” Mr. Harrington continued.
“Equally important, we are confident about the strategic course we have set for Thomson. We continue to evolve from being a content provider to creating information solutions that combine critical information with software tools and applications that are integrated into the workflow of our customers. The early success of our solutions such as Thomson ONE for financial professionals, Westlaw Litigator for attorneys and, more recently, Thomson Pharma for scientific researchers, gives us confidence that we will continue to achieve profitable growth by providing tools for knowledge workers in our chosen markets that help them be more productive,” Mr. Harrington said.