Reed Elsevier Confirms 2014 Outlook

(RTTNews) - Anglo-Dutch publishing and events company Reed Elsevier Plc. (REL.L, RUK, ENL) Wednesday said its first-quarter underlying revenue growth rates, excluding the impact of biennial exhibition cycling, were broadly consistent with 2013. The company also said its fiscal 2014 outlook remains unchanged.

Going ahead, the company is confident of delivering another year of underlying revenue, profit, and earnings growth, by continuing to execute on its strategy.

In its interim management statement, the professional information company said it supported organic growth strategy with selective small acquisitions of content and data assets, including Innovata and Tracesmart, and with the disposal of Buyerzone.

In the Scientific, Technical & Medical business area, the company said its revenue drivers were broadly unchanged on last year. For the full year, it expects continued volume growth and strong demand for electronic products and solutions, and continued declines in print book and pharma promotion revenues.

Overall, the firm anticipates another year of modest underlying revenue growth in the segment in 2014.

In Risk Solutions business, revenue growth in insurance segment continued to be driven by good take up of new products and services, as well as expansion into adjacent market verticals, the company said.

In Business Information segment, Reed Elsevier continues to expect good underlying growth in Major Data Services and stable Leading Brands and Other Business Magazines & Services.

According to the company, other international markets continued to achieve good growth in Legal segment, while, the US and its major European markets remained subdued in the first quarter. The firm said it expects its customer markets to remain subdued for full year.

For its Exhibitions business, the US and Japan continued to achieve strong growth in the first quarter, and European events saw modest overall growth. "We continue to expect good underlying growth in the US and Japan, and limited growth in Europe. In other markets we expect growth to remain strong, albeit at a slightly lower rate than in 2013," the company said.

Further, Reed Elsevier said it has so far completed 250 million pounds in share buybacks, leaving a further 350 million pounds to be deployed by the end of the year. Earlier, the firm had announced its intention to deploy a total of 600 million pounds on share buybacks in 2014.

In London, Reed Elsevier shares are currently trading at 879.5 pence, down 0.62 percent, on a volume of 1.16 million shares.