Dollar saps Reuters revenues

Revenue at Reuters fell by 1.1% to £626m in the first quarter of this year compared with £633m a year ago.

The news provider blamed most of the fall on the weaker dollar. When acquisitions and disposals are stripped out of the results, revenue grew by 6.5% compared with 4% last year.

New revenue came from electronic trading, sales of data products and new initiatives in consumer media, China and India.

“Our first-quarter results confirm that we have made a strong start to 2007,” said the company’s chief executive Tom Glocer. “Reuters continues to benefit from the focused investment we announced with Core Plus.

“The early indications from [foreign exchange joint venture] FXMarketSpace are encouraging, and we are well positioned to deliver on our full-year expectations.”

Reuters completed the sale of its 50% stake in news aggregation service Factiva to development partner Dow Jones in December 2006.

Reuters realised a total of $178m (£89.2m) in cash from the sale of Factiva, and also retained a minority share interest in the company, which is valued at $7m.

The company used the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt. At 31 December 2006 Reuters’ net debt stood at £333m.

Changing licensing agreements with newspapers like the Financial Times, which delayed news feeds by 24 hours last summer, and free news services such as Google News Archive have shaken up the news aggregation market over the past year.

Reuters signed a non-compete agreement with Factiva’s core business for a two-year period, and will continue the exclusivity arrangements currently in place.

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