Pearson Issues Trading Update; 9-month Group Sales Down 14% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Pearson Plc (PSO, PSON.L) said, at the nine months, Group sales declined by 14% largely reflecting the continuing impact of COVID-19 and test centre and school closures. Global Online Learning sales grew 14% due to 41% enrolment growth in Virtual Schools for the academic year 2020/2021. Global Assessment sales were down 19% for the period.

Regarding 2020 outlook, Pearson Plc said it is on track to deliver an outturn broadly in line with market expectations.

John Fallon, Chief Executive said: "Our digital performance is very strong, as we support customers and learners around the world as they shift to fully online and hybrid learning. This has been a challenging transformation for all of us but we are starting to see the benefit of all our work to ensure Pearson becomes the winner in digital learning."

Pearson has immediately available liquidity of approximately 1.6 billion pounds through committed facilities and cash balances.