Reuters back in profit

Reuters back in profit

LONDON: British financial information giant Reuters swung back into profit in the first six months of the year, it said Tuesday, while also warning that revenues had dipped sharply over the period.

In the six months to the end of June, Reuters saw underlying pre-tax profits of 87 million pounds (123 million euros, US$139 million), compared with a 10 million pound loss over the same period of 2002.

The profit was well above analysts' expectations of a figure around 30-50 million pounds.

However, actual pre-tax profits were a more modest 16 million pounds against a loss of 88 million in the year-earlier period.

And over the same period the group's revenues slumped by 12 percent to 1.62 billion pounds.

Over the course of the 2003 revenues were expected to dip 11 percent in total, Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said, while insisting that the first-half results were "solid". -- AFP