25 February 2022
- Underlying sales growth of 8%
- Adjusted earnings per share¹ of 34.9p (2020: 28.7p) after an effective tax rate charge of 20% (2020: 14%) and net interest charge of £57m (2020: £61m).
- Adjusted operating profit¹ up 33% on an underlying basis to £385m
- Higher Education down 5%, with growth in Canadian and UK Courseware offset by a 6% decline in US Higher Education Courseware.
2022 outlook
- Confident of further group revenue growth, with adjusted operating profit, interest and tax expected to be in line with current market expectations2.
- Assessment & Qualifications revenue growth of low to mid-single digits with strong margins maintained.
- Growth in Virtual Learning with low-single digit growth in Virtual Schools and high-single digit growth in Online Program Management (OPM) and further margin expansion through operational efficiency improvements in OPM.
- English Language Learning revenue growth of mid-single digits. Business continues to recover from COVID-19 with further margin improvement expected.
- Significant revenue growth in Workforce Skills underpinned by the acquisitions of Faethm and Credly. Margins will be break-even as we invest to accelerate growth.
- Higher Education revenue to decline, but by less than last year, with margin stabilisation reflecting cost efficiencies. We expect enrolments to decline, but at a lower rate than in 2021, although that could improve. We also expect pricing pressure to continue due to the shift from print to ebooks and Pearson+, and from bundles to digital only, offset by continued recapture of the secondary market.
https://plc.pearson.com/en-GB/investors/performance/results-reports-presentations