Thomson Reuters returned to revenue growth last year as the news and information company saw total revenue increase one per cent year-on-year to $13.1bn (£8.2bn).
Publishing full year results today, the company said underlying operating profit declined seven per cent year on year to $2.6bn as a result of investment in new products, acquisitions and the impact of currency conversion.
Operating profit also declined ten per cent, the company said, to a total of $1.4bn last year.
“2010 was a year of execution and delivery for us. We released new flagship products, including WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters Eikon and Thomson Reuters Elektron, and returned the company to growth,” said chief executive Tom Glocer.
“With this period of heavy investment now successfully completed and our markets improving, we have set our sights on accelerating growth and delivering strong returns on our investments.
“We have targeted mid-single digit revenue growth for 2011, accompanied by strongly expanding margins and increasing levels of free cash flow.”
Thomson Reuters makes the bulk of its income from professional services supplied to financial and legal businesses and facilitating financial trading.
The media division of Thomson Reuters, which contains the Reuters News newswire business, recorded a year-on-year decline in full year revenue of two per cent to $324m in 2010.
The company attributed this to subscription cancellations and ‘softness’in its syndication and health businesses.
However, in the final three months of 2010, revenue in the media division increased one per cent year on year to $86m – within this the news agency business recorded the same growth, driven by recurring TV revenues.
Thomson Reuters said 2010 marked the final year of the integration process set in motion by the merger of Reuters and Thomson in 2007 and that as a result it had raised its savings target by $100m to $1.7bn for 2011.
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