Thomson Reuters beats estimates, sees higher 2018 revenue

By Jessica Toonkel

(Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp on Friday reported first-quarter sales and earnings that were slightly higher than expected, and forecast low single-digit growth in revenue this year in its remaining business.

The news and information company announced earlier in the year that it is selling a majority stake in its Financial & Risk unit to private equity firm Blackstone Group LP.

Thomson Reuters reported quarterly revenue of $1.38 billion, up from $1.33 billion a year ago. Adjusted for special items, first-quarter earnings were 28 cents per share.

Analysts, on average, were expecting revenue of $1.36 billion and earnings of 27 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Thomson Reuters expects to use $1 billion to $3 billion from the proceeds of the Blackstone deal to make acquisitions in legal and accounting, but has no plans to go into new businesses, Chief Executive Jim Smith said in an interview with Reuters.

"We think there is plenty of runway to continue to grow right where we are today our legal and regulatory businesses," he said.

Smith said he expects to stay on with the remaining Thomson Reuters business after the deal closes this year, pending regulatory approvals.

The company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for 2018 to range between $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in the remaining business.

The legal business reported revenue of $872 million in the first quarter, up 2 percent excluding currency. The Tax & Accounting unit reported revenue of $437 million, up 5 percent when factoring out currency.

Thomson Reuters, the parent of Reuters News, competes for financial customers with Bloomberg LP as well as News Corp's Dow Jones unit.

The news division reported $72 million in revenue, down 7 percent from a year earlier in constant currency.

In the quarter, the Financial and Risk business grew revenues 3 percent in constant currency to $1.58 billion. The unit is now counted as a discontinued operation.

Under the agreement, the new F&R company will make minimum annual payments of $325 million to Reuters over 30 years to secure access to its news service, equating to almost $10 billion. The payments will be adjusted for inflation.

CEO Smith said the company was not currently planning a pay wall for news. Competitor Bloomberg announced earlier this month it would begin a metered pay wall to charge users for access to its content.

Thomson Reuters announced a new $500-million share repurchase program.

(Reporting By Jessica Toonkel, Writing by Nick Zieminski; Editing by Bernadette Baum)