London
Reuters closes last office in Fleet Street area
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Reuters has closed its last office in the Fleet Street area – London Bureau has moved a mile east, closer to the main UK office at Canary Wharf.
The new address, Aldgate House, 33 Aldgate High Street, is adjacent to Aldgate Tube station. It was officially opened by Lord Sebastian Coe, former Olympic champion middle distance runner now chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The bureau was previously in Kildare House on Dorset Rise off Fleet Street. Reuters sold its long-time headquarters at 85 Fleet Street and moved to Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands in 2005.
The new address, Aldgate House, 33 Aldgate High Street, is adjacent to Aldgate Tube station. It was officially opened by Lord Sebastian Coe, former Olympic champion middle distance runner now chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The bureau was previously in Kildare House on Dorset Rise off Fleet Street. Reuters sold its long-time headquarters at 85 Fleet Street and moved to Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands in 2005.
How to make money out of the Internet, by Hugo Dixon
Monday 25 January 2010
Hugo Dixon, who made more than £3 million out of the sale of his Breakingviews financial commentary website to Thomson Reuters, has some tips for those who want to make money from the Internet.
Thomson Reuters paid £12 million for the business, with £3 million of that sum covering Dixon's shares and options. A further retention bonus keeps him in place for another three years.
"You have got to have distinctive, value-added content and in an era of budget cuts that gets harder and harder," he said in an interview. "The temptation if you've got to cut costs by five per cent is just to salami slice and everyone works a bit harder and quality just deteriorates a little bit more. What you end up with when you finally decide to put it behind a paywall is something that's not good enough to persuade people to pay for."
Dixon, now global editor of the re-branded Reuters Breakingviews, says media groups have got to focus much more clearly on what is their unique selling point – "keep the investment there, possibly increase the investment there, and everything else, which may be necessary as part of a package, because a newspaper is a package, they don't have to produce themselves, they can buy that in," he told The Guardian. He says Rupert Murdoch should never be underestimated but he will have a tough time succeeding with a paywall for his newspaper sites in the UK given the free alternatives.
Prior to founding Breakingviews in 1999 Dixon was a correspondent, leader writer and an editor at the Financial Times. At 46 he is "a trim figure with an air of donnish abstraction about him, and a cerebral manner” The Guardian says, and “looks slightly out of place in the corridors of Reuters' glitzy Canary Wharf HQ. He and his US editor, Rob Cox, are the only survivors of Breakingviews' early days as a dotcom startup. With the bet finally paying off, Dixon can afford to dispense advice. But he is not, on the surface, given to self-doubt and former colleagues say he was not always emollient with those without such a high IQ.
"One former ally less pleased by the deal was Jonathan Ford, Breakingviews' co-founder and another ex-FT staffer. Having left the site in 2007 after the two men fell out, he was signed up the following year to run Reuters' fledgling commentary operation, a rival to Breakingviews. Reuters' decision to buy Dixon's business effectively put Ford out of a job, and unsurprisingly he left." Ford returned the FT last week chief leader writer.
The Reuters deal has allowed Breakingviews to beef up its offices in London and New York, add a second columnist in Hong Kong and Washington and another in Moscow and to seek columnists for Dubai, Mumbai, Tokyo and Frankfurt. It also has people in Paris and Madrid and syndicates columns to 15 newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times and Le Monde. The 30-strong team of Reuters Breakviews columnists includes Neil Collins, former City editor of The Daily Telegraph and Peter Thal Larsen, former banking editor of the FT.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Thomson Reuters paid £12 million for the business, with £3 million of that sum covering Dixon's shares and options. A further retention bonus keeps him in place for another three years.
"You have got to have distinctive, value-added content and in an era of budget cuts that gets harder and harder," he said in an interview. "The temptation if you've got to cut costs by five per cent is just to salami slice and everyone works a bit harder and quality just deteriorates a little bit more. What you end up with when you finally decide to put it behind a paywall is something that's not good enough to persuade people to pay for."
Dixon, now global editor of the re-branded Reuters Breakingviews, says media groups have got to focus much more clearly on what is their unique selling point – "keep the investment there, possibly increase the investment there, and everything else, which may be necessary as part of a package, because a newspaper is a package, they don't have to produce themselves, they can buy that in," he told The Guardian. He says Rupert Murdoch should never be underestimated but he will have a tough time succeeding with a paywall for his newspaper sites in the UK given the free alternatives.
Prior to founding Breakingviews in 1999 Dixon was a correspondent, leader writer and an editor at the Financial Times. At 46 he is "a trim figure with an air of donnish abstraction about him, and a cerebral manner” The Guardian says, and “looks slightly out of place in the corridors of Reuters' glitzy Canary Wharf HQ. He and his US editor, Rob Cox, are the only survivors of Breakingviews' early days as a dotcom startup. With the bet finally paying off, Dixon can afford to dispense advice. But he is not, on the surface, given to self-doubt and former colleagues say he was not always emollient with those without such a high IQ.
"One former ally less pleased by the deal was Jonathan Ford, Breakingviews' co-founder and another ex-FT staffer. Having left the site in 2007 after the two men fell out, he was signed up the following year to run Reuters' fledgling commentary operation, a rival to Breakingviews. Reuters' decision to buy Dixon's business effectively put Ford out of a job, and unsurprisingly he left." Ford returned the FT last week chief leader writer.
The Reuters deal has allowed Breakingviews to beef up its offices in London and New York, add a second columnist in Hong Kong and Washington and another in Moscow and to seek columnists for Dubai, Mumbai, Tokyo and Frankfurt. It also has people in Paris and Madrid and syndicates columns to 15 newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times and Le Monde. The 30-strong team of Reuters Breakviews columnists includes Neil Collins, former City editor of The Daily Telegraph and Peter Thal Larsen, former banking editor of the FT.
● SOURCE The Guardian
Tom Glocer, £4 million to the good, house-hunting in New York
Saturday 15 August 2009
Tom Glocer, who pocketed £4 million after selling some of his Thomson Reuters shares near the top this week, plans to buy a new home in New York, the Financial Times reported.
The CEO, who relocated to his hometown from London last year, sold 200,000 shares at £20.11 – near their all-time high of £20.34 – on Tuesday.
The family kept an apartment in New York while Glocer lived in London as pre-merger Reuters CEO. They also own a lake house in Finland, where Glocer's Finnish wife Maarit grew up.
The FT, which has been reading Glocer's blog, says it's a cut above the usual CEO effort. "Mr Glocer writes about everything from Obama to markets, the future of newspapers, technology (he loves Facebook), books (he reads Roth to Dostoevsky to Houellebecq), music (The Grateful Dead), and 'soccer vs footie'. He started his blog, he says, after deciding that he could see what it was like himself, or pay a pricey consultant to write him a report on it."
● SOURCE Financial Times | Tom Glocer’s Blog
The CEO, who relocated to his hometown from London last year, sold 200,000 shares at £20.11 – near their all-time high of £20.34 – on Tuesday.
The family kept an apartment in New York while Glocer lived in London as pre-merger Reuters CEO. They also own a lake house in Finland, where Glocer's Finnish wife Maarit grew up.
The FT, which has been reading Glocer's blog, says it's a cut above the usual CEO effort. "Mr Glocer writes about everything from Obama to markets, the future of newspapers, technology (he loves Facebook), books (he reads Roth to Dostoevsky to Houellebecq), music (The Grateful Dead), and 'soccer vs footie'. He started his blog, he says, after deciding that he could see what it was like himself, or pay a pricey consultant to write him a report on it."
● SOURCE Financial Times | Tom Glocer’s Blog
Shareholders vote to quit London Stock Exchange
Friday 07 August 2009
Twenty-five years after Reuters floated on the London Stock Exchange, Thomson Reuters shareholders voted on Friday to delist, distancing Reuters further from its British roots.
The vote at an extraordinary general meeting in London was 97.4 per cent in favour of quitting the LSE. At a simultaneous EGM in Toronto the figure was 99.6 per cent. Fewer than 100 shareholders attended the London meeting, with a similar number in Toronto.
The Canadian vote was decided by Thomson's family holding company, Woodbridge, which owns about two-thirds of the outstanding shares in Thomson Reuters Corp and had already committed to vote in favour of the move.
It will also delist from NASDAQ, remaining on the main New York and Toronto exchanges.
The delistings are expected to take place on 10 September, subject to UK court approval.
Shareholders in Thomson Reuters PLC are entitled to receive one Thomson Reuters Corp share for every PLC share they hold, while holders of American Depository Shares will receive six Thomson Reuters Corp shares per ADS.
Thomson Reuters, formed in 2008 when Canadian data publisher Thomson bought Reuters, has said it wants to simplify its capital structure and eliminate the persistent discount at which the London shares have traded to the Canadian shares.
The UK shares have traded at a discount to the Canadian shares since the April 2008 merger. The gap has narrowed to 2 per cent from 13.6 per cent before the company announced its plan in June to delist the London shares.
"I expect that a more straightforward capital structure will ensure that the focus of investors will remain firmly on the company itself and not on its capital structure," chief executive Tom Glocer told shareholders in London.
Not all shareholders agreed with the decision. "This country is a link to Europe. It looks like everything is going to shift to America and I'm a bit nervous about that," Allan Ferguson, who holds about 686 Thomson Reuters shares, told the London meeting. "I feel that we're just going to be another outpost."
Glocer has moved his base to New York from London, which remains the company's second-biggest base. Thomson Reuters made 58 per cent of its revenue in the Americas, 32 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 10 per cent in Asia last year.
Paul Julius Reuter opened his news and stock-quote service in London in 1851. It became a global news service and in 1984 became a public company with shares listed in London and New York.
Thomson Reuters says UK shareholders own only about a quarter of its London-listed shares, down from about 58 per cent in 2007, and hold only 5 per cent of the company's total outstanding shares.
Some analysts say London investors were influenced by memories of Reuters' poor performance during the last downturn, and were not convinced of the more defensive qualities of Thomson's products aimed at legal, health and tax professionals.
On Thursday, Thomson Reuters reported a better than expected quarterly profit helped by cost cuts, and said it expected 2009 revenue to grow as the financial industry recovered and banks started hiring again.
Credit Suisse, Bernstein and RBC raised their target price on the shares on Friday, but Jefferies downgraded the stock, saying it expected some UK shareholders to take profits rather than convert into Canadian shares.
● SOURCE Reuters
The vote at an extraordinary general meeting in London was 97.4 per cent in favour of quitting the LSE. At a simultaneous EGM in Toronto the figure was 99.6 per cent. Fewer than 100 shareholders attended the London meeting, with a similar number in Toronto.
The Canadian vote was decided by Thomson's family holding company, Woodbridge, which owns about two-thirds of the outstanding shares in Thomson Reuters Corp and had already committed to vote in favour of the move.
It will also delist from NASDAQ, remaining on the main New York and Toronto exchanges.
The delistings are expected to take place on 10 September, subject to UK court approval.
Shareholders in Thomson Reuters PLC are entitled to receive one Thomson Reuters Corp share for every PLC share they hold, while holders of American Depository Shares will receive six Thomson Reuters Corp shares per ADS.
Thomson Reuters, formed in 2008 when Canadian data publisher Thomson bought Reuters, has said it wants to simplify its capital structure and eliminate the persistent discount at which the London shares have traded to the Canadian shares.
The UK shares have traded at a discount to the Canadian shares since the April 2008 merger. The gap has narrowed to 2 per cent from 13.6 per cent before the company announced its plan in June to delist the London shares.
"I expect that a more straightforward capital structure will ensure that the focus of investors will remain firmly on the company itself and not on its capital structure," chief executive Tom Glocer told shareholders in London.
Not all shareholders agreed with the decision. "This country is a link to Europe. It looks like everything is going to shift to America and I'm a bit nervous about that," Allan Ferguson, who holds about 686 Thomson Reuters shares, told the London meeting. "I feel that we're just going to be another outpost."
Glocer has moved his base to New York from London, which remains the company's second-biggest base. Thomson Reuters made 58 per cent of its revenue in the Americas, 32 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 10 per cent in Asia last year.
Paul Julius Reuter opened his news and stock-quote service in London in 1851. It became a global news service and in 1984 became a public company with shares listed in London and New York.
Thomson Reuters says UK shareholders own only about a quarter of its London-listed shares, down from about 58 per cent in 2007, and hold only 5 per cent of the company's total outstanding shares.
Some analysts say London investors were influenced by memories of Reuters' poor performance during the last downturn, and were not convinced of the more defensive qualities of Thomson's products aimed at legal, health and tax professionals.
On Thursday, Thomson Reuters reported a better than expected quarterly profit helped by cost cuts, and said it expected 2009 revenue to grow as the financial industry recovered and banks started hiring again.
Credit Suisse, Bernstein and RBC raised their target price on the shares on Friday, but Jefferies downgraded the stock, saying it expected some UK shareholders to take profits rather than convert into Canadian shares.
● SOURCE Reuters
How Reuters convinced unions about Geneva HQ, by Michael Nelson
Saturday 27 June 2009
A Reuters plan to relocate to Geneva from London 30 years ago had nothing to do with internationalism but with British trade unionism, Michael Nelson, general manager at the time, said.
The company devised a stratagem to convince the unions that it would leave London, its headquarters since Paul Julius Reuter founded the business in 1851, if it could not get a deal with them during what became known as the 1979 “winter of discontent”.
The plan worked, and Reuters remained at 85 Fleet Street.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported in an article on Thomson Reuters’ decision to end trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange: “If there is concern about the decision in London, it won't be on patriotic grounds. Reuters had been a global company for years before the Thomson deal (although according to a history of the group, Peter Job, managing director, dismissed a 1980 suggestion to relocate its HQ to Geneva as "pallid internationalism").”
The FT’s Lombard columnist, publishing Nelson’s clarification under the headline “Reuters’ Swiss solution”, said on Saturday:
“Thomson Reuters’ decision to scrap its London listing should not upset patriots because Reuters has always been a global company. But my parenthetical reference this week to an abortive plan to move the group’s headquarters to Geneva – mentioned in Donald Read’s history of Reuters, The Power of News – prompted a fascinating clarification from Michael Nelson, who was general manager of Reuters at the time.
“He says this had ‘nothing to do with internationalism but with British trade unionism’. In 1979, the year of the ‘winter of discontent’, Mr Nelson suggested Reuters build a data centre in the Swiss city as an alternative to London if a deal could not be struck with the unions.
“Union representatives were periodically flown out, given a tour of the empty building, ‘a good lunch on Lake Geneva’, and a warning ‘that if we could not get what we wanted in London, we would move to Geneva’.
“The ploy worked and, as Reuters expanded, the building was used to serve continental clients, eventually becoming the headquarters for Europe.”
Five years earlier, union officials and Reuters’ union representatives had been flown at company expense to study video editing in operation in New York. Kevin Garry, in charge of staff relations, “hinted that, if London refused to follow New York, the whole Fleet Street editorial operation might be moved outside the United Kingdom”, according to the company’s official history. Agreement was reached in mid-1975 but the introduction of video editing in London with journalists’ right to by-pass telegraphists and transmit news directly to line was delayed for technical reasons until the end of 1979.
Unions are again threatening strikes and (erroneous) parallels are being drawn with the situation 30 years ago, the FT said. But the story is a timely reminder of how much heavier the pressure was in the late 1970s; of the lengths employers went to in order to hedge their bets; and of how Reuters, a media pioneer in so many other ways, came close to showing the way forward to Eddie Shah and Rupert Murdoch. As Mr Nelson points out: “Geneva was not Reuters’ Wapping, but might have been.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
The company devised a stratagem to convince the unions that it would leave London, its headquarters since Paul Julius Reuter founded the business in 1851, if it could not get a deal with them during what became known as the 1979 “winter of discontent”.
The plan worked, and Reuters remained at 85 Fleet Street.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported in an article on Thomson Reuters’ decision to end trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange: “If there is concern about the decision in London, it won't be on patriotic grounds. Reuters had been a global company for years before the Thomson deal (although according to a history of the group, Peter Job, managing director, dismissed a 1980 suggestion to relocate its HQ to Geneva as "pallid internationalism").”
The FT’s Lombard columnist, publishing Nelson’s clarification under the headline “Reuters’ Swiss solution”, said on Saturday:
“Thomson Reuters’ decision to scrap its London listing should not upset patriots because Reuters has always been a global company. But my parenthetical reference this week to an abortive plan to move the group’s headquarters to Geneva – mentioned in Donald Read’s history of Reuters, The Power of News – prompted a fascinating clarification from Michael Nelson, who was general manager of Reuters at the time.
“He says this had ‘nothing to do with internationalism but with British trade unionism’. In 1979, the year of the ‘winter of discontent’, Mr Nelson suggested Reuters build a data centre in the Swiss city as an alternative to London if a deal could not be struck with the unions.
“Union representatives were periodically flown out, given a tour of the empty building, ‘a good lunch on Lake Geneva’, and a warning ‘that if we could not get what we wanted in London, we would move to Geneva’.
“The ploy worked and, as Reuters expanded, the building was used to serve continental clients, eventually becoming the headquarters for Europe.”
Five years earlier, union officials and Reuters’ union representatives had been flown at company expense to study video editing in operation in New York. Kevin Garry, in charge of staff relations, “hinted that, if London refused to follow New York, the whole Fleet Street editorial operation might be moved outside the United Kingdom”, according to the company’s official history. Agreement was reached in mid-1975 but the introduction of video editing in London with journalists’ right to by-pass telegraphists and transmit news directly to line was delayed for technical reasons until the end of 1979.
Unions are again threatening strikes and (erroneous) parallels are being drawn with the situation 30 years ago, the FT said. But the story is a timely reminder of how much heavier the pressure was in the late 1970s; of the lengths employers went to in order to hedge their bets; and of how Reuters, a media pioneer in so many other ways, came close to showing the way forward to Eddie Shah and Rupert Murdoch. As Mr Nelson points out: “Geneva was not Reuters’ Wapping, but might have been.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
Reuters' many flags - FT
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Thomson Reuters’ decision to end its London Stock Exchange listing will deny British index funds and those institutions with an outdated mandate to invest only in UK-listed companies the opportunity to share in future growth of the business, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.
Something has gone a bit awry when UK investors keep their exposure to London-listed Kazakh miners that are part of the FTSE 100 index but lose their stake in a global media business with deep roots in Britain, it said in a report under the headline “Reuters' many flags”.
But Thomson Reuters’ experience does not necessary rule out a dual-listed structure the next time somebody wants to mount a cross-border takeover using shares, rather than cash, the FT said.
Companies as diverse as Thomson Reuters' competitor Reed Elsevier, cruise company Carnival, and miner Rio Tinto maintain a dual listing.
“But the structure is an impediment when raising funds - or defending against a hostile bid - it imposes an additional running cost ($10 million a year in Thomson Reuters' case), and it adds complexity when simplicity is in fashion.”
The FT quoted a 1915 leaflet celebrating the 50th anniversary of Reuter's Telegram Company: "Reuter's Agency has always been recognised as a British institution representing the English point of view. [Its managing director] is in all respects an Englishman. The Directors, the Editorial Staff, and the correspondents are British pure and simple, and so, with the exception of a score, are the 1,200 shareholders."
Reuters once had to defend itself against allegations of undue German influence during the First World War, the FT said. “Times have changed. No one will accuse Thomson Reuters of treasonable behaviour for ending its London listing. The media group has recognised the inevitable reality and UK-based shareholders have voted with their feet. Since last year's deal with Canada's Thomson, the proportion of Thomson Reuters PLC's shares held in London has dropped from 58 per cent to less than 25 per cent. The balance of shareholder power has inexorably shifted to New York and Toronto.
“If there is concern about the decision in London, it won't be on patriotic grounds. Reuters had been a global company for years before the Thomson deal (although according to a history of the group, Sir Peter Job, managing director, dismissed a 1980 suggestion to relocate its HQ to Geneva as "pallid internationalism").”
The FT noted that “Paul Julius Reuter, the agency's founder, had two names (he was born Israel Beer Josaphat), two nationalities (German and English) and two religions (Jewish and Christian), so you wouldn't bet against Thomson Reuters adding another listing in future (Shanghai, perhaps). But, barring takeover or break-up, London is, regrettably, unlikely to be one of them.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
Something has gone a bit awry when UK investors keep their exposure to London-listed Kazakh miners that are part of the FTSE 100 index but lose their stake in a global media business with deep roots in Britain, it said in a report under the headline “Reuters' many flags”.
But Thomson Reuters’ experience does not necessary rule out a dual-listed structure the next time somebody wants to mount a cross-border takeover using shares, rather than cash, the FT said.
Companies as diverse as Thomson Reuters' competitor Reed Elsevier, cruise company Carnival, and miner Rio Tinto maintain a dual listing.
“But the structure is an impediment when raising funds - or defending against a hostile bid - it imposes an additional running cost ($10 million a year in Thomson Reuters' case), and it adds complexity when simplicity is in fashion.”
The FT quoted a 1915 leaflet celebrating the 50th anniversary of Reuter's Telegram Company: "Reuter's Agency has always been recognised as a British institution representing the English point of view. [Its managing director] is in all respects an Englishman. The Directors, the Editorial Staff, and the correspondents are British pure and simple, and so, with the exception of a score, are the 1,200 shareholders."
Reuters once had to defend itself against allegations of undue German influence during the First World War, the FT said. “Times have changed. No one will accuse Thomson Reuters of treasonable behaviour for ending its London listing. The media group has recognised the inevitable reality and UK-based shareholders have voted with their feet. Since last year's deal with Canada's Thomson, the proportion of Thomson Reuters PLC's shares held in London has dropped from 58 per cent to less than 25 per cent. The balance of shareholder power has inexorably shifted to New York and Toronto.
“If there is concern about the decision in London, it won't be on patriotic grounds. Reuters had been a global company for years before the Thomson deal (although according to a history of the group, Sir Peter Job, managing director, dismissed a 1980 suggestion to relocate its HQ to Geneva as "pallid internationalism").”
The FT noted that “Paul Julius Reuter, the agency's founder, had two names (he was born Israel Beer Josaphat), two nationalities (German and English) and two religions (Jewish and Christian), so you wouldn't bet against Thomson Reuters adding another listing in future (Shanghai, perhaps). But, barring takeover or break-up, London is, regrettably, unlikely to be one of them.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
Delisting disappoints UK investors and analysts
Tuesday 23 June 2009
UK investors and analysts are disappointed at Thomson Reuters' plan to cancel its London Stock Exchange listing, Reuters reported.
Monday’s board decision prompted a jump in the shares on Tuesday, but the rally was tempered by fears some large British shareholders will have to cut or sell their stakes.
Chief executive Tom Glocer said he hoped UK shareholders – only five per cent of the company's combined shareholder base – would retain their investments after the reorganisation, but major institutional investors are likely to sell many or all of their shares, given the funds they manage are UK focused.
Reuters reported: "Tom Glocer was good enough to come and see me yesterday afternoon together with the two other remaining institutional shareholders in London, and I am bitterly disappointed," said one top-10 institutional investor who wished to remain anonymous.
The fund manager said he had hoped the company would leave it five years before reaching a decision on its listings.
"The dozy old UK institutions and sell-side analysts are only just realising that Thomson Reuters is a much better company than they thought," he said. "I think investors would have really come back to this one ... It's a real shame."
The company said the fragmentation in its share structure was deterring some investors.
Analysts at Numis Securities said they could see the benefits the simpler shareholder structure would bring but that they too were disappointed by the move.
"We have been firm supporters of the group, which was one of our key picks in Media 2009, and are therefore greatly saddened to see the delisting," they wrote, adding that many UK institutional investors would likely have to sell their stakes.
Numis had a “hold” rating on the London-listed stock prior to news of the reorganisation but upgraded it to “add” in order to reflect the discount relative to the US shares.
UBS analysts said any upside to the shares may be capped by the fact some institutional shareholders would have to sell stock and were less enthusiastic about the company's prospects, retaining a "sell" rating.
"We continue to believe the the fundamental value of the group overall remains too high," UBS analyst Phillip Huang said in a note. "We would expect to see evidence of deteriorating momentum near future, which combined with imminent increased liquidity, could put pressure on the Corp valuation."
Meanwhile, the longstanding valuation spread between the stocks has already dropped to less than four per cent from 9.3 per cent and will continue to narrow, Huang said.
"[There] may be some offset from PLC holders selling if unable to hold Corp," he said.
In any event, London shares are likely to be driven down in value by virtue of the delisting announcement alone, so Huang has reiterated his "sell" rating and kept his price target of $23.50.
Todd Bourell, a partner at hedge fund ValueAct Capital, which owns 12 million Thomson Reuters shares in London and is one of the company's largest shareholders, said Thomson Reuters' London listing had become problematic for the company.
"The fact that the stock is irrationally undervalued in London is putting a drag on the value of the stock in New York and Toronto," Bourell said.
Canada's Thomson family is the largest shareholder of Thomson Reuters and holds a 55 per cent voting interest.
The Financial Times blamed “a more parochial investment approach” for bogging down Thomson Reuters.
“For a company that makes much of its money from professionals in globalised markets moving capital across borders at high speed, Thomson Reuters became oddly bogged down by a more parochial investment approach,” it said.
When Thomson Corp swooped on Reuters in the summer of 2007, it knew that some UK investors would have trouble holding the paper in its half-cash, half-shares £7.9 billion offer, the FT said.
To avoid a large scale defection of domestic institutions, it turned to a well-worn structure: the dual-listed company, or DLC.
The theory was that shareholders on either side of the Atlantic should be allowed to trade instruments of identical value, taking currency into account, on the local market of their choice.
Reuters’ London shares initially traded at a discount to Thomson’s North American listings until the deal completed in April 2008.
Such gaps are typical with uncompleted deals, as hedge funds bet on possible regulatory delays and other hurdles. Unusually, however, the discount did not disappear when the deal closed.
Over the year, the London line traded on average at a 15 per cent discount to the Toronto quote.
An instrument designed to smooth the takeover instead became an unexpected illustration of the inefficiencies that still exist in modern global markets, the FT said.
The fact that the DLC structure failed to behave as expected was described on Monday by one person close to the company as “irrational”, but analysts identify a number of reasons.
One factor was that the high concentration of the Thomson family’s stake in Canada limited liquidity in Toronto, benefiting the price by restricting opportunities for borrowing stock to sell short.
The simplest explanation, however, may be that UK investors have taken a more bearish stance towards the company, the FT said.
“Their North American peers, many in the company believe, focus less obsessively on the financial data business that serves hard-hit Wall Street and City of London traders and give more weight to its legal, scientific, healthcare, tax and accounting operations.”
For the group, a unified capital structure opens up the possibility of more stock-based acquisitions once turbulence subsides. Having two differently valued instruments could have complicated potential takeovers, especially while more than $5 billion of liquidity was effectively trapped in a pool outside North America.
According to Glocer: “In an age where our markets are global and electronic, brought that way in part because of us at Thomson Reuters, where these shares are traded is much less important to me than where our customers, employees and footprint are.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Financial Post | Financial Times
Monday’s board decision prompted a jump in the shares on Tuesday, but the rally was tempered by fears some large British shareholders will have to cut or sell their stakes.
Chief executive Tom Glocer said he hoped UK shareholders – only five per cent of the company's combined shareholder base – would retain their investments after the reorganisation, but major institutional investors are likely to sell many or all of their shares, given the funds they manage are UK focused.
Reuters reported: "Tom Glocer was good enough to come and see me yesterday afternoon together with the two other remaining institutional shareholders in London, and I am bitterly disappointed," said one top-10 institutional investor who wished to remain anonymous.
The fund manager said he had hoped the company would leave it five years before reaching a decision on its listings.
"The dozy old UK institutions and sell-side analysts are only just realising that Thomson Reuters is a much better company than they thought," he said. "I think investors would have really come back to this one ... It's a real shame."
The company said the fragmentation in its share structure was deterring some investors.
Analysts at Numis Securities said they could see the benefits the simpler shareholder structure would bring but that they too were disappointed by the move.
"We have been firm supporters of the group, which was one of our key picks in Media 2009, and are therefore greatly saddened to see the delisting," they wrote, adding that many UK institutional investors would likely have to sell their stakes.
Numis had a “hold” rating on the London-listed stock prior to news of the reorganisation but upgraded it to “add” in order to reflect the discount relative to the US shares.
UBS analysts said any upside to the shares may be capped by the fact some institutional shareholders would have to sell stock and were less enthusiastic about the company's prospects, retaining a "sell" rating.
"We continue to believe the the fundamental value of the group overall remains too high," UBS analyst Phillip Huang said in a note. "We would expect to see evidence of deteriorating momentum near future, which combined with imminent increased liquidity, could put pressure on the Corp valuation."
Meanwhile, the longstanding valuation spread between the stocks has already dropped to less than four per cent from 9.3 per cent and will continue to narrow, Huang said.
"[There] may be some offset from PLC holders selling if unable to hold Corp," he said.
In any event, London shares are likely to be driven down in value by virtue of the delisting announcement alone, so Huang has reiterated his "sell" rating and kept his price target of $23.50.
Todd Bourell, a partner at hedge fund ValueAct Capital, which owns 12 million Thomson Reuters shares in London and is one of the company's largest shareholders, said Thomson Reuters' London listing had become problematic for the company.
"The fact that the stock is irrationally undervalued in London is putting a drag on the value of the stock in New York and Toronto," Bourell said.
Canada's Thomson family is the largest shareholder of Thomson Reuters and holds a 55 per cent voting interest.
The Financial Times blamed “a more parochial investment approach” for bogging down Thomson Reuters.
“For a company that makes much of its money from professionals in globalised markets moving capital across borders at high speed, Thomson Reuters became oddly bogged down by a more parochial investment approach,” it said.
When Thomson Corp swooped on Reuters in the summer of 2007, it knew that some UK investors would have trouble holding the paper in its half-cash, half-shares £7.9 billion offer, the FT said.
To avoid a large scale defection of domestic institutions, it turned to a well-worn structure: the dual-listed company, or DLC.
The theory was that shareholders on either side of the Atlantic should be allowed to trade instruments of identical value, taking currency into account, on the local market of their choice.
Reuters’ London shares initially traded at a discount to Thomson’s North American listings until the deal completed in April 2008.
Such gaps are typical with uncompleted deals, as hedge funds bet on possible regulatory delays and other hurdles. Unusually, however, the discount did not disappear when the deal closed.
Over the year, the London line traded on average at a 15 per cent discount to the Toronto quote.
An instrument designed to smooth the takeover instead became an unexpected illustration of the inefficiencies that still exist in modern global markets, the FT said.
The fact that the DLC structure failed to behave as expected was described on Monday by one person close to the company as “irrational”, but analysts identify a number of reasons.
One factor was that the high concentration of the Thomson family’s stake in Canada limited liquidity in Toronto, benefiting the price by restricting opportunities for borrowing stock to sell short.
The simplest explanation, however, may be that UK investors have taken a more bearish stance towards the company, the FT said.
“Their North American peers, many in the company believe, focus less obsessively on the financial data business that serves hard-hit Wall Street and City of London traders and give more weight to its legal, scientific, healthcare, tax and accounting operations.”
For the group, a unified capital structure opens up the possibility of more stock-based acquisitions once turbulence subsides. Having two differently valued instruments could have complicated potential takeovers, especially while more than $5 billion of liquidity was effectively trapped in a pool outside North America.
According to Glocer: “In an age where our markets are global and electronic, brought that way in part because of us at Thomson Reuters, where these shares are traded is much less important to me than where our customers, employees and footprint are.”
● SOURCE Reuters | Financial Post | Financial Times
TR's London shares gain 7.3 per cent on delisting news
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Thomson Reuters' London shares had their biggest gain in more than six months after the company unveiled plans to quit the London Stock Exchange.
The shares rose as much as 7.3 per cent to 1750 pence, the biggest gain since 19 December, before falling back to 1720 pence. The London shares later gave up more of the gain, closing at 1690 pence, a rise of 59 pence or 3.62 per cent on the day.
Over the past year the London shares have traded at a discount of up to 20 per cent to the North American shares, although this has narrowed to about 10 per cent recently.
It was described as an arbitrageur’s dream, allowing investors to sell the more expensive North American shares and buy the cheaper British ones.
Thomson Reuters said on Monday it would remain listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, while quitting the LSE and NASDAQ.
● SOURCE Bloomberg | MarketWatch
The shares rose as much as 7.3 per cent to 1750 pence, the biggest gain since 19 December, before falling back to 1720 pence. The London shares later gave up more of the gain, closing at 1690 pence, a rise of 59 pence or 3.62 per cent on the day.
Over the past year the London shares have traded at a discount of up to 20 per cent to the North American shares, although this has narrowed to about 10 per cent recently.
It was described as an arbitrageur’s dream, allowing investors to sell the more expensive North American shares and buy the cheaper British ones.
Thomson Reuters said on Monday it would remain listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, while quitting the LSE and NASDAQ.
● SOURCE Bloomberg | MarketWatch
Delisting won't affect operations, customers, strategy or financial position - Tom Glocer
Tuesday 23 June 2009
“Unification would benefit shareholders by creating a single deep, global pool of liquidity and a simpler, more transparent capital structure,” he said in a message to the company’s 52,000 staff.
“Our shares are currently listed on four different stock exchanges [London, New York, NASDAQ and Toronto], which has fragmented the trading in our shares and deterred certain large global investors from buying our shares. Unification would also reduce costs and complexity across the company.
“You might fairly ask did we not anticipate when we announced the structure in 2007 that a DLC [dual listed company] would split the trading in our shares and carry a cost and complexity burden? We did, but we believed that these disadvantages would be outweighed by retaining and attracting an active following of investors in the UK. Unfortunately, things have not worked out that way. Over the past two years the percentage of shares held by UK active shareholders has declined from 45% of Thomson Reuters PLC to 12%, and North American investors now own 64% of PLC shares. Overall, UK shareholders now represent only 5% of our consolidated shareholder base. In these circumstances, it is now far better to unify our structure to offer a single, deep pool of liquidity to global investors.”
Glocer encouraged staff who hold Thomson Reuters shares to vote for the change at shareholder meetings scheduled for 7 August. He said shareholder meeting materials and proxy forms will be available in early July.
Following unification, all Thomson Reuters shareholders will have the same economic and voting interests in the company as they do under the current DLC structure, Glocer said.
“Our commitment to customers, employees and other stakeholders in London, the United Kingdom and Europe is unchanged by where we list our shares. London is a vital global capital for the markets we serve and home to more than 5,000 of our employees.
“The Founders Share Company has indicated it will support unification as this will in no way diminish our adherence to the Reuters Trust Principles.”
● SOURCE Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters to quit London Stock Exchange
Monday 22 June 2009
Thomson Reuters said it plans to withdraw its shares from the London Stock Exchange, “severing a key connection with Reuters' British roots”, as Reuters’ own story put it.
The company said it would also remove its shares from NASDAQ and remain listed only on the New York and Toronto exchanges.
Chief executive Tom Glocer played down concerns that Thomson Reuters could lose any UK-based shareholders through the action, noting that only five per cent of all shareholders are in the United Kingdom. He expressed hope that those shareholders would retain their holdings even after the delisting.
"Our shares are now fragmented, divided between North America and London in a way we didn't envision. That's hurting the company because there are investors who would come in but won't," Glocer said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
Thomson Reuters said it would seek shareholder approval for the London and NASDAQ delistings on 7 August.
"In a global electronic world where shares are trading in ones and zeros ... where we trade our shares is, to me, plumbing," Glocer said. "I think we shouldn't get too hung up ... London is still the second largest centre that we've got."
Thomson Reuters shares closed down 78 cents to C$33.53 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and down 94 cents at $29.08 on the New York Stock Exchange.
● SOURCE Reuters
The company said it would also remove its shares from NASDAQ and remain listed only on the New York and Toronto exchanges.
Chief executive Tom Glocer played down concerns that Thomson Reuters could lose any UK-based shareholders through the action, noting that only five per cent of all shareholders are in the United Kingdom. He expressed hope that those shareholders would retain their holdings even after the delisting.
"Our shares are now fragmented, divided between North America and London in a way we didn't envision. That's hurting the company because there are investors who would come in but won't," Glocer said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
Thomson Reuters said it would seek shareholder approval for the London and NASDAQ delistings on 7 August.
"In a global electronic world where shares are trading in ones and zeros ... where we trade our shares is, to me, plumbing," Glocer said. "I think we shouldn't get too hung up ... London is still the second largest centre that we've got."
Thomson Reuters shares closed down 78 cents to C$33.53 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and down 94 cents at $29.08 on the New York Stock Exchange.
● SOURCE Reuters
Thomson Reuters to end London share listing - FT
Monday 22 June 2009
Thomson Reuters has decided to end the London listing for its shares, the Financial Times reported.
The board discussed the decision on Monday afternoon, the newspaper said in a report from New York. It is subject to shareholder and court approval.
Thomson Reuters needs 75 per cent majority approval from shareholders to replace the current UK-listed shares and their related US-listed American Depositary Receipts with a single Toronto listing.
The FT said the switch will be conducted through a scheme of arrangement in a manner designed to avoid tax penalties for shareholders and should be completed by the end of September if shareholders and courts give their approval.
It would end a period marked by large valuation gaps between the London and Toronto listings since the dual structure was put in place when Thomson took over Reuters in April 2008.
The UK shares currently trade 10 per cent below the North American stock and 95 per cent of the company is now held by non-UK shareholders, the FT said.
“By improving liquidity in the Canadian stock, which includes most of the Thomson family’s controlling 55 per cent stake, the group hopes to improve its appeal to investors and its chances of raising capital if needed in future,” the FT said.
“The company has been conscious of the long history of Reuters in London, which dates back to Paul Julius Reuter’s pioneering use of carrier pigeons and submarine telegraph cables in the 1850s.
“However, people close to the company told the Financial Times that the change would not affect its sizeable Thomson Reuters markets business in London, nor headcount at its professional division…”
The company could save about $10 million in accounting, legal and other costs associated with the UK listing, they estimated.
The FT said that just 25 per cent of the London listed shares are now in the hands of UK institutions, down from over 50 per cent, of which roughly half were active investors and the other half index tracking funds.
The group expects index trackers and some UK active investors to come out of the stock, but its greater weighting in the Toronto index should in part offset any flow-back issues.
● SOURCE Financial Times
The board discussed the decision on Monday afternoon, the newspaper said in a report from New York. It is subject to shareholder and court approval.
Thomson Reuters needs 75 per cent majority approval from shareholders to replace the current UK-listed shares and their related US-listed American Depositary Receipts with a single Toronto listing.
The FT said the switch will be conducted through a scheme of arrangement in a manner designed to avoid tax penalties for shareholders and should be completed by the end of September if shareholders and courts give their approval.
It would end a period marked by large valuation gaps between the London and Toronto listings since the dual structure was put in place when Thomson took over Reuters in April 2008.
The UK shares currently trade 10 per cent below the North American stock and 95 per cent of the company is now held by non-UK shareholders, the FT said.
“By improving liquidity in the Canadian stock, which includes most of the Thomson family’s controlling 55 per cent stake, the group hopes to improve its appeal to investors and its chances of raising capital if needed in future,” the FT said.
“The company has been conscious of the long history of Reuters in London, which dates back to Paul Julius Reuter’s pioneering use of carrier pigeons and submarine telegraph cables in the 1850s.
“However, people close to the company told the Financial Times that the change would not affect its sizeable Thomson Reuters markets business in London, nor headcount at its professional division…”
The company could save about $10 million in accounting, legal and other costs associated with the UK listing, they estimated.
The FT said that just 25 per cent of the London listed shares are now in the hands of UK institutions, down from over 50 per cent, of which roughly half were active investors and the other half index tracking funds.
The group expects index trackers and some UK active investors to come out of the stock, but its greater weighting in the Toronto index should in part offset any flow-back issues.
● SOURCE Financial Times
Crustaceans, sushi and more at '85'
Saturday 13 June 2009
London’s latest restaurant, named after architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, is opening at 85 Fleet Street, Reuters’ landmark headquarters for more than six decades.
Lutyens restaurant, bar and cellar rooms will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7:30 am to midnight.
The cuisine in the 125-seat restaurant is crustaceans, sushi, classic French and English recipes, and at the bar classic French country style meals.
Lutyens designed the eight-storey Portland stone building, next door to the journalists’ church, Sir Christopher Wren’s famous wedding cake-style St Bride’s, and it opened as the head office of Reuters and the Press Association shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939.
Generations of Reuters people referred to it simply as “85”.
The building cost £450,000, about three times the original estimate, and fetched £32 million when Reuters consolidated all its London offices at Canary Wharf in 2005.
● SOURCE Lutyens Restaurant, Bar and Cellar Rooms
Reuters hires three more columnists
Thursday 14 May 2009
Reuters announced three more appointments to its commentary team.
Agnes Crane, an editor at Dow Jones Newswires, Matthew Goldstein, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, and Christopher Swann from Bloomberg News are joining over the next three weeks as columnists based in New York.
The 25-member commentary team based primarily in London and New York will produce a blog.
The team will be led by Jonathan Ford, co-founder of Breakingviews. The European team will be led by Peter Thal Larsen, formerly banking editor of the Financial Times, and the US team will be led by Jeffrey Cane, formerly an editor at Portfolio.com and The New York Times.
"I am very excited to have a team of such talented financial journalists," said Cane. "They, along with our New York-based financial blogger, Felix Salmon, and our Washington blogger and columnist, James Pethokoukis, will greatly expand the ability of Reuters to offer smart, fact-based opinion on the big stories in the global financial markets."
● SOURCE PR News Wire
Agnes Crane, an editor at Dow Jones Newswires, Matthew Goldstein, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, and Christopher Swann from Bloomberg News are joining over the next three weeks as columnists based in New York.
The 25-member commentary team based primarily in London and New York will produce a blog.
The team will be led by Jonathan Ford, co-founder of Breakingviews. The European team will be led by Peter Thal Larsen, formerly banking editor of the Financial Times, and the US team will be led by Jeffrey Cane, formerly an editor at Portfolio.com and The New York Times.
"I am very excited to have a team of such talented financial journalists," said Cane. "They, along with our New York-based financial blogger, Felix Salmon, and our Washington blogger and columnist, James Pethokoukis, will greatly expand the ability of Reuters to offer smart, fact-based opinion on the big stories in the global financial markets."
● SOURCE PR News Wire
Thomson Reuters Q1 profit beats forecasts
Thursday 07 May 2009
Thomson Reuters reported better-than-expected first quarter profit on Thursday as it kept a tight control on costs. The company reaffirmed its expectation that revenue will grow this year.
CEO Tom Glocer said the climate in the market had improved but not enough to rule out further weakness.
"I can't really call exactly where the bottom is. There can be false dawns. Right now sentiment is quite good in the market. We see them opening up their purse strings just a little bit," he said.
The London-listed shares closed a tad under 44 pence lower at 1,812 pence, down 2.37 per cent, after hitting a record high of 1,939 before the results were released.
Greater losses were registered in New York and Toronto.
In New York, Thomson Reuters shares closed 5.73 per cent lower at $29.77, a loss of $1.81.
On NASDAQ, the shares closed at $161.51, down $7.98 or 4.71 per cent.
In Toronto, the fall was 4.75 per cent or C$1.75 to a close of C$35.08.
Thomson Reuters’ Q1 net income was $228 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $194 million, or 30 cents a share, a year ago.
Underlying operating profit, excluding amortisation, integration costs and other items, rose two per cent to $588 million, or 40 cents per share, beating the average analyst forecast of 34 cents per share.
Revenue from ongoing businesses was $3.12 billion, down three per cent from a year ago but up three per cent before currency effects. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $3.17 billion.
The company reaffirmed its outlook for revenue to grow in 2009, and for underlying operating margin and free cash flow to be comparable to 2008, supported by revenue growth and the expected savings from integration programmes.
Thomson Reuters has said it expects annualised cost savings of $1 billion by the end of 2011, and Glocer said that while this was a good target, he did not rule out more.
Revenue in the Markets division, which supplies news and data to financial institutions, fell seven per cent to $1.85 billion, hurt by lower transaction volumes and job cuts. But the revenue would have risen 0.4 per cent before currency effects.
Though the outlook has brightened in recent weeks, financial institutions have been hit by closures, mergers and deep job cuts, and Reuters reported that the company is regarded by some analysts as the riskiest bet among professional information providers due to its exposure to the financial sector for about 60 per cent of group sales.
But strong execution, a high proportion of subscription and digital revenues, and the resilience of the Professional unit have helped to drive up Thomson Reuters London-listed shares by more than 20 per cent in the year to date.
Revenue at the Professional division, which supplies information to lawyers, scientists, accountants and the healthcare industry, rose two per cent to $1.27 billion, or five per cent excluding currency effects.
Glocer told the Financial Times that Thomson Reuters can take market share from rivals once turbulent financial and legal markets revive.
Bloomberg’s fall in terminal numbers by 2.5 per cent since November suggested “a much stronger descent than we’re seeing” in the markets business where they compete, Glocer said. “I certainly feel we’re at least holding our own.”
Much of the market share gains the group foresees would come from taking over the “do-it-yourself” data efforts of large banks and other customers, he said. Subscriptions had risen by two per cent in the markets business, while transaction revenues had fallen, but would rebound quickly in a recovery, he added.
“It feels like sentiment has changed in the last month,” Glocer told the FT, “but we don’t run our business on the basis that we need to clutch at green shoots.”
Robert Daleo, chief financial officer, said savings from integration were ahead of plan, adding that when combined with earlier initiatives these were on track to meet a $1.4 billion target by 2011.
● CLICK to read a transcript of the analysts’ webcast by Tom Glocer and Robert Daleo.
● SOURCE Reuters | Financial Times
CEO Tom Glocer said the climate in the market had improved but not enough to rule out further weakness.
"I can't really call exactly where the bottom is. There can be false dawns. Right now sentiment is quite good in the market. We see them opening up their purse strings just a little bit," he said.
The London-listed shares closed a tad under 44 pence lower at 1,812 pence, down 2.37 per cent, after hitting a record high of 1,939 before the results were released.
Greater losses were registered in New York and Toronto.
In New York, Thomson Reuters shares closed 5.73 per cent lower at $29.77, a loss of $1.81.
On NASDAQ, the shares closed at $161.51, down $7.98 or 4.71 per cent.
In Toronto, the fall was 4.75 per cent or C$1.75 to a close of C$35.08.
Thomson Reuters’ Q1 net income was $228 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $194 million, or 30 cents a share, a year ago.
Underlying operating profit, excluding amortisation, integration costs and other items, rose two per cent to $588 million, or 40 cents per share, beating the average analyst forecast of 34 cents per share.
Revenue from ongoing businesses was $3.12 billion, down three per cent from a year ago but up three per cent before currency effects. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $3.17 billion.
The company reaffirmed its outlook for revenue to grow in 2009, and for underlying operating margin and free cash flow to be comparable to 2008, supported by revenue growth and the expected savings from integration programmes.
Thomson Reuters has said it expects annualised cost savings of $1 billion by the end of 2011, and Glocer said that while this was a good target, he did not rule out more.
Revenue in the Markets division, which supplies news and data to financial institutions, fell seven per cent to $1.85 billion, hurt by lower transaction volumes and job cuts. But the revenue would have risen 0.4 per cent before currency effects.
Though the outlook has brightened in recent weeks, financial institutions have been hit by closures, mergers and deep job cuts, and Reuters reported that the company is regarded by some analysts as the riskiest bet among professional information providers due to its exposure to the financial sector for about 60 per cent of group sales.
But strong execution, a high proportion of subscription and digital revenues, and the resilience of the Professional unit have helped to drive up Thomson Reuters London-listed shares by more than 20 per cent in the year to date.
Revenue at the Professional division, which supplies information to lawyers, scientists, accountants and the healthcare industry, rose two per cent to $1.27 billion, or five per cent excluding currency effects.
Glocer told the Financial Times that Thomson Reuters can take market share from rivals once turbulent financial and legal markets revive.
Bloomberg’s fall in terminal numbers by 2.5 per cent since November suggested “a much stronger descent than we’re seeing” in the markets business where they compete, Glocer said. “I certainly feel we’re at least holding our own.”
Much of the market share gains the group foresees would come from taking over the “do-it-yourself” data efforts of large banks and other customers, he said. Subscriptions had risen by two per cent in the markets business, while transaction revenues had fallen, but would rebound quickly in a recovery, he added.
“It feels like sentiment has changed in the last month,” Glocer told the FT, “but we don’t run our business on the basis that we need to clutch at green shoots.”
Robert Daleo, chief financial officer, said savings from integration were ahead of plan, adding that when combined with earlier initiatives these were on track to meet a $1.4 billion target by 2011.
● CLICK to read a transcript of the analysts’ webcast by Tom Glocer and Robert Daleo.
● SOURCE Reuters | Financial Times
Thomson Reuters' UK shares hit record high
Tuesday 05 May 2009
Thomson Reuters’ London shares closed at a record high on Tuesday.
The stock ended the day up 95 pence – 5.43 per cent – at 1845 pence on the London Stock Exchange.
Percentage increases in North America were modest.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the share was six cents higher – 0.20 per cent – at $30.70.
On NASDAQ, the increase was $2.45 – 1.49 per cent – to $166.45.
In Toronto, the increase was C$0.16 – 0.44 per cent – to C$36.15.
The stock ended the day up 95 pence – 5.43 per cent – at 1845 pence on the London Stock Exchange.
Percentage increases in North America were modest.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the share was six cents higher – 0.20 per cent – at $30.70.
On NASDAQ, the increase was $2.45 – 1.49 per cent – to $166.45.
In Toronto, the increase was C$0.16 – 0.44 per cent – to C$36.15.
Reuters to beat Bloomberg out of global crisis - FT
Monday 27 April 2009
Reuters may fare better than Bloomberg in the current financial crisis, the Financial Times said on Monday.
Thanks to a technological shift, instead of just wholesaling news and data, wire services can in theory also sell it direct to consumers via the internet or mobile applications. But advertising is scarce and such retail schemes, which cannibalise wholesale revenues, have floundered in the past, it said.
A bigger problem is the banking crisis. Peter Grauer, Bloomberg’s chairman, believes the financial services industry will cut its information spending by 20 per cent this year.
“Such shrinkage offers a replay of the slugging match during the dotcom downturn, when Bloomberg got the better of Reuters, its duopolistic financial information rival,” the FT said.
“This time Reuters may fare better. Bloomberg can’t count on the hedge funds it courted in the 2000s to pick up the slack. It is dominant in fixed-income, not the best place to be; Reuters is stronger in forex and commodities. Furthermore, Thomson Reuters’ legal and medical information provide extra ballast. Bloomberg’s largely one-trick business model, renting terminals at $1,590 per month, hinges on body count. Thanks to savings from the merger, Thomson Reuters shares trade at 15 times forecast earnings, a 32 per cent premium to its peers. Bad news can only await such a high wire rating.”
Analysts expect the global financial crisis to have profound consequences for the industry, but what those will be is far from obvious, the FT said.
Lengthy subscriptions mean cuts by customers take time to filter through, and even in the quarter when Lehman Brothers collapsed, transactional revenues rose thanks to volatility in commodity and foreign exchange markets.
“Only now, as first-quarter figures begin to come through, are investors watching anxiously for the early signs of the credit crunch’s impact. Citigroup analysts noted last week that transaction revenues could be down 40 per cent,” the FT said.
There is considerable uncertainty about the extent to which financial companies will retain overlapping, or similar services given the pressure on services. Although at the same time heightened scrutiny on valuations and increased regulatory demands could help support the industry.
Not all are affected equally. Citigroup argued that Thomson Reuters could fare better than Bloomberg because the latter had been more exposed to harder-hit fixed-income and asset-backed securities traders and hedge funds.
One analyst, who would not be named, said Bloomberg was taking an “aggressively proactive” approach to persuading customers to keep their terminals.
The analyst told the FT that Thomson Reuters, which is less dependent on terminal sales than in past downturns, was fighting back ahead of launching its first common platform since the former Thomson Financial and Reuters businesses combined a year ago.
Thomson Reuters’ London-listed shares are now at the same level as last May. Over the same period the FTSE has dropped 35 per cent.
The London shares closed on Monday at 1,705 pence, 0.99 per cent below their 52-week high of 1,722 set nine trading days ago on 14 April.
● SOURCE Financial Times
Thanks to a technological shift, instead of just wholesaling news and data, wire services can in theory also sell it direct to consumers via the internet or mobile applications. But advertising is scarce and such retail schemes, which cannibalise wholesale revenues, have floundered in the past, it said.
A bigger problem is the banking crisis. Peter Grauer, Bloomberg’s chairman, believes the financial services industry will cut its information spending by 20 per cent this year.
“Such shrinkage offers a replay of the slugging match during the dotcom downturn, when Bloomberg got the better of Reuters, its duopolistic financial information rival,” the FT said.
“This time Reuters may fare better. Bloomberg can’t count on the hedge funds it courted in the 2000s to pick up the slack. It is dominant in fixed-income, not the best place to be; Reuters is stronger in forex and commodities. Furthermore, Thomson Reuters’ legal and medical information provide extra ballast. Bloomberg’s largely one-trick business model, renting terminals at $1,590 per month, hinges on body count. Thanks to savings from the merger, Thomson Reuters shares trade at 15 times forecast earnings, a 32 per cent premium to its peers. Bad news can only await such a high wire rating.”
Analysts expect the global financial crisis to have profound consequences for the industry, but what those will be is far from obvious, the FT said.
Lengthy subscriptions mean cuts by customers take time to filter through, and even in the quarter when Lehman Brothers collapsed, transactional revenues rose thanks to volatility in commodity and foreign exchange markets.
“Only now, as first-quarter figures begin to come through, are investors watching anxiously for the early signs of the credit crunch’s impact. Citigroup analysts noted last week that transaction revenues could be down 40 per cent,” the FT said.
There is considerable uncertainty about the extent to which financial companies will retain overlapping, or similar services given the pressure on services. Although at the same time heightened scrutiny on valuations and increased regulatory demands could help support the industry.
Not all are affected equally. Citigroup argued that Thomson Reuters could fare better than Bloomberg because the latter had been more exposed to harder-hit fixed-income and asset-backed securities traders and hedge funds.
One analyst, who would not be named, said Bloomberg was taking an “aggressively proactive” approach to persuading customers to keep their terminals.
The analyst told the FT that Thomson Reuters, which is less dependent on terminal sales than in past downturns, was fighting back ahead of launching its first common platform since the former Thomson Financial and Reuters businesses combined a year ago.
Thomson Reuters’ London-listed shares are now at the same level as last May. Over the same period the FTSE has dropped 35 per cent.
The London shares closed on Monday at 1,705 pence, 0.99 per cent below their 52-week high of 1,722 set nine trading days ago on 14 April.
● SOURCE Financial Times
Goldman Sachs cuts Thomson Reuters to 'sell'
Thursday 16 April 2009
Goldman Sachs cut its rating on Thomson Reuters to “sell” from “neutral” on Thursday, sending the shares lower in London and New York.
The influential US investment bank believes the group’s financial information business – the Markets division – will suffer a significant deterioration in sales this year.
Citing another round of job cuts at leading investment banks, Goldman said: “We believe Markets will see significant deterioration in 1Q to -3 per cent and for the full year to -8 per cent, compared with full-year consensus forecasts of -4 per cent.”
At one point the London shares touched 1,611 pence, but then closed at 1,656 – 9.30% below their 52-week high of 1,826 pence set a year ago. The 52-week low is 883 pence.
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Thomson Corp’s takeover of Reuters.
Over the last week Thomson Reuters has underperformed the FTSE 100 index. Over all other time periods it outperformed the index.
Closing prices:
LONDON: TRIL.L up 0.98 per cent to 1656p.
NEW YORK: TRI down 1.70 per cent to $27.19.
TORONTO: TRI.TO down 1.29 per cent to C$32.90.
NASDAQ: TRIN up 0.60 per cent to $149.41.
● SOURCE Financial Times
The influential US investment bank believes the group’s financial information business – the Markets division – will suffer a significant deterioration in sales this year.
Citing another round of job cuts at leading investment banks, Goldman said: “We believe Markets will see significant deterioration in 1Q to -3 per cent and for the full year to -8 per cent, compared with full-year consensus forecasts of -4 per cent.”
At one point the London shares touched 1,611 pence, but then closed at 1,656 – 9.30% below their 52-week high of 1,826 pence set a year ago. The 52-week low is 883 pence.
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Thomson Corp’s takeover of Reuters.
Over the last week Thomson Reuters has underperformed the FTSE 100 index. Over all other time periods it outperformed the index.
Closing prices:
LONDON: TRIL.L up 0.98 per cent to 1656p.
NEW YORK: TRI down 1.70 per cent to $27.19.
TORONTO: TRI.TO down 1.29 per cent to C$32.90.
NASDAQ: TRIN up 0.60 per cent to $149.41.
● SOURCE Financial Times
Woodbridge signals it may sell Toronto shares, buy London ones
Thursday 26 February 2009
Woodbridge, the Thomson family's investment vehicle that controls more than half of Thomson Reuters shares, signalled on Thursday it may sell some of its shares traded in Toronto for those traded in London.
The company announced in Toronto that it had made a Canadian regulatory filing that would permit it to undertake transactions providing for sales of up to 10 million additional Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares (representing approximately two per cent of its holdings of Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares) and purchases of a similar number of Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares.
The filing does not commit Woodbridge to undertake any of these transactions. Woodbridge previously announced and completed similar transactions in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Any share sales would be through the Toronto Stock Exchange within 30 days. Purchases would be through the London Stock Exchange.
One ordinary share of Thomson Reuters PLC is equivalent to one common share of Thomson Reuters Corporation under Thomson Reuters dual listed company structure. As of yesterday, Woodbridge and other companies affiliated with it beneficially owned an aggregate of 439,767,486 Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares and 15,375,287 Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares (including ordinary shares underlying Thomson Reuters PLC American Depositary Shares) and had a voting interest in Thomson Reuters of approximately 55 per cent.
The London listing has traded at a discount to the North American quotes since Thomson's takeover of Reuters was completed last April.
The company announced in Toronto that it had made a Canadian regulatory filing that would permit it to undertake transactions providing for sales of up to 10 million additional Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares (representing approximately two per cent of its holdings of Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares) and purchases of a similar number of Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares.
The filing does not commit Woodbridge to undertake any of these transactions. Woodbridge previously announced and completed similar transactions in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Any share sales would be through the Toronto Stock Exchange within 30 days. Purchases would be through the London Stock Exchange.
One ordinary share of Thomson Reuters PLC is equivalent to one common share of Thomson Reuters Corporation under Thomson Reuters dual listed company structure. As of yesterday, Woodbridge and other companies affiliated with it beneficially owned an aggregate of 439,767,486 Thomson Reuters Corporation common shares and 15,375,287 Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares (including ordinary shares underlying Thomson Reuters PLC American Depositary Shares) and had a voting interest in Thomson Reuters of approximately 55 per cent.
The London listing has traded at a discount to the North American quotes since Thomson's takeover of Reuters was completed last April.
Tom Glocer says Thomson Reuters set for growth in 2009
Thursday 29 January 2009
Thomson Reuters continues to see bright spots in its financial services unit and the company is still set for growth this year, CEO Tom Glocer said on Thursday.
Even though there were big job losses across the financial services industry there would still need to be hirings in new areas, he told Reuters correspondent Mike Dolan at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"The trading of very opaque assets with very wide spreads, I think we'll see those sorts of over-the-counter markets evolve," Glocer said, adding that there will be a need for pricing feeds and infrastructure to accurately price those assets.
"I don't think anybody who's here can in their right mind be optimistic about 2009, either from a global economy point of view or in financial services," he said.
But "in our financial services unit ... we continue to see bright spots right across the world. I'm feeling good about the business.”
Thomson Reuters makes about 60 per cent of revenues and 45 per cent of profits from its markets division, whose customers are mainly banks.
"There's no question that growth has been tempering, it's been coming down,” Glocer said. “But for the company as a whole, we continue to talk about growth in 2009."
He said the integration after Thomson Corp’s $11 billion takeover of Reuters in April 2008 was "going very well".
He also said the company would keep the different listings of its stock in London, Toronto and New York as long as investors demanded it.
"The London listing was left in place to meet the demand. As long as that's the case, there's certainly a rationale for maintaining the listing," he said.
Investors have speculated that the company may drop its London listing as a price gap that opened up on the first day of trading in Thomson Reuters shares in Toronto and London widens.
● SOURCE Reuters
Obituary: Baroness de Reuter
Sunday 25 January 2009
Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, the last of the Reuters, died on Sunday aged 96. The Reuter Barony is now extinct.
She was the widow of Oliver George Paul Louis Gordon, 4th Baron de Reuter (1894-1968), whose grandfather Paul Julius Reuter established his news service in London in 1851. They married on 4 December 1937.
The Barony was granted by Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, brother of Queen Victoria's Consort Prince Albert, in 1871. Queen Victoria formally recognised the German title as carrying the privileges of the foreign nobility in England in 1891. Reuters' founder was born in Germany in 1816 and became a naturalised British subject in 1857.
As the title passes down the male line exclusively and as all three grandsons of Paul Julius de Reuter were childless, it becomes extinct on the death of the Baroness.
"The name dies with her," said her friend Michael Nelson, former general manager.
Another close friend, John Fox, said the baroness had suffered successive strokes late last year. She died in a French old people's home on the border with Monaco.
He said Swiss-born Marguerite, a widow for more than 40 years, was intensely proud of the family link with Reuters, and of the British nationality she acquired through her husband.
The Reuter family's direct connection with the company ended on 18 April 1915 when the founder's son, Baron Herbert de Reuter, 63, shot himself three days after the sudden death of his wife. Hubert de Reuter, his only son, thus became the 3rd Baron. He served as a private in the Black Watch regiment of the British Army and was killed by machine-gun fire whilst carrying wounded men during the Battle of the Somme on 13 November 1916, five days before the end of that battle.
His cousin Oliver then became the 4th Baron.
Last year Reuters, which had already moved out of 85 Fleet Street, its headquarters since 1939, was taken over by Thomson, the Canadian media group.
Thomson Reuters’ chief executive Tom Glocer said he was saddened to hear of the baroness's death. He added:
"Although the founding family of Reuters were no longer significant shareholders in the company, the baroness did notably attend a service at St Bride's Church, London, to mark Reuters' historic move from Fleet Street to Canary Wharf in 2005."
The baroness was special guest at the Farewell to Fleet Street service.
Marguerite was born on 14 July 1912, the daughter of George Uehlinger of Neunkirch, Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Friends remembered her as a generous woman who spoke numerous languages, loved bridge, opera and ballet, and enjoyed skiing until well into her 70s.
Known to her English friends as Daisy, she long divided her time between Monte Carlo and Lausanne.
"She was a very warm-hearted, hospitable person – generous, philanthropic, a great supporter of the arts and music. She was always immaculately turned out: elegant, refined and beautiful, with the most angelic smile," Fox said.
He said Marguerite would be cremated in Lausanne and her ashes interred there with the remains of her husband.
Postscript: The funeral and cremation of Baroness de Reuter was at the Monaco Athenae on Thursday 29 January.
The service was attended by the nephew of the Baroness, Paul Dunner, and about a dozen friends, mostly from Saint Paul’s Anglican Church whose American rector Fr Walter Raymond conducted the service.
Nelson gave the address.
A wreath from the company carried a “Thomson Reuters” banner. It marked the end of an era.
● SOURCE Reuters
Thomson Reuters may post strong results, say analysts
Friday 16 January 2009
Thomson Reuters is expected to post strong results next month, J.P. Morgan Securities analysts said on Friday, even as they downgraded the London-listed shares to "neutral" from "overweight" on valuation.
The analysts raised their price targets on the London- and New York-listed shares of the group and kept their "neutral" stance on the U.S. stock.
"We continue to like the fundamentals of the company but would look for a better entry price into both stocks," they wrote in a note to clients.
The analysts expect the group to report strong results, with potential cost savings and/or some restructuring charges shifting from 2008 to 2009.
But the key risk to the shares is news about financial industry job losses and the market's potential read-through to organic growth at the group's markets division, they said. The markets division includes the Reuters and Thomson news operations as well as financial data and tools for investment banks and other financial firms.
Chief financial officer Robert Daleo said last week that the group's quarterly and annual revenue growth rate would slow, reflecting the effects of the world financial crisis.
J.P. Morgan analysts, however, said any weakness in the group's markets division revenue will be offset by the relative strength in its professional unit, which represented about 60 per cent of profits. The professional division sells databases and other deep information reservoirs to lawyers, accountants, scientists and the healthcare industry.
Cost savings may also largely cushion any markets revenue decline, the analysts added.
They raised their price target on Thomson Reuters’ London shares to 1,750 pence from 1,500 pence, and on Thomson Reuters Corp shares to $26.60 from $26.30.
● SOURCE Reuters
The analysts raised their price targets on the London- and New York-listed shares of the group and kept their "neutral" stance on the U.S. stock.
"We continue to like the fundamentals of the company but would look for a better entry price into both stocks," they wrote in a note to clients.
The analysts expect the group to report strong results, with potential cost savings and/or some restructuring charges shifting from 2008 to 2009.
But the key risk to the shares is news about financial industry job losses and the market's potential read-through to organic growth at the group's markets division, they said. The markets division includes the Reuters and Thomson news operations as well as financial data and tools for investment banks and other financial firms.
Chief financial officer Robert Daleo said last week that the group's quarterly and annual revenue growth rate would slow, reflecting the effects of the world financial crisis.
J.P. Morgan analysts, however, said any weakness in the group's markets division revenue will be offset by the relative strength in its professional unit, which represented about 60 per cent of profits. The professional division sells databases and other deep information reservoirs to lawyers, accountants, scientists and the healthcare industry.
Cost savings may also largely cushion any markets revenue decline, the analysts added.
They raised their price target on Thomson Reuters’ London shares to 1,750 pence from 1,500 pence, and on Thomson Reuters Corp shares to $26.60 from $26.30.
● SOURCE Reuters
FT speculates Thomson Reuters may de-list in London
Friday 09 January 2009
More than 150 years after Paul Julius Reuter started to supply prices from the London Stock Exchange, traders there are beginning to ask whether Thomson Reuters might one day disappear from the UK market, the Financial Times said on Friday.
The likely reason for the symbolic shock of a possible de-listing: the valuation gap between the shares in London and in North America, currently about 22 per cent.
“North American investors are concerned the depressed UK price drags on their stock,” the FT said. “They ask whether further action, possibly including an end to the London listing, may be needed.”
Analysts at TD Newcrest, a Canadian brokerage, summarised the dilemma last week, saying: “We are reluctant to continue recommending [the Canadian stock] when we know that investors can buy an identical economic interest in the company for 22 per cent less via [the London] shares.”
Analysts attribute the discrepancy to hedge fund activity, currency exposures and differing views of the company’s assets on opposite sides of the Atlantic, but many have been startled by the extent of the gap, the FT said.
“Thomson people think the old Thomson [which encompasses legal, healthcare and scientific databases] is greatly underestimated [in London],” said Patrick Wellington, a Morgan Stanley analyst.
UK investors with memories of Reuters’ deep troubles in past market slumps have also been more bearish about prospects for its financial data business, Thomson Reuters Markets, which contributes 60 per cent of group sales and about 40 per cent of profits, the FT said.
“We’re prepared to invest the time and energy and effort with our UK investors to help them understand the dynamics of the business,” chief financial officer Robert Daleo told a conference this week. Extensive investor relations efforts have made little difference so far, however.
The FT said Woodbridge, the Thomson family investment company and the group’s largest shareholder, has attempted to tackle another factor behind the UK discount, providing liquidity to arbitrageurs who struggle to borrow the tightly held Toronto stock by swapping some of its Canadian shares for UK paper.
The strategy has been modestly lucrative. By effectively buying about C$300 million of stock at about a 20 per cent discount, Woodbridge has made about C$60 million, but the sum is small set beside the family holding company’s wealth. Two rounds of such trades have yet to close the gap.
The FT said Woodbridge, which had 70 per cent of Thomson Reuters Corp when the takeover closed, has so far amassed an eight per cent holding in Thomson Reuters Plc.
The FT said it is thought unlikely that Woodbridge would seek to increase its overall holding beyond the current total, which has edged up from 53 per cent to 55 per cent with dividend reinvestments.
A Thomson Reuters spokesman would not comment on the dual listed company (DLC) structure, it said. “People close to the company say it has no plans to change it in the next few months. However, board members review the structure regularly, aware that other DLCs, such as Reed Elsevier, have not seen such wide valuation gaps.”
The London shares represent 24 per cent of the group’s value. North Americans now control more than 50 per cent of the UK stock.
“One theory is that the group can wait until north American ownership is sufficiently high that the majority of London investors ask for Canadian or U.S. stock instead. What that percentage would have to be, however, is unclear,” the FT said.
“Ending the former Reuters’ presence on the London exchange would be a symbolic shock to many.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
The likely reason for the symbolic shock of a possible de-listing: the valuation gap between the shares in London and in North America, currently about 22 per cent.
“North American investors are concerned the depressed UK price drags on their stock,” the FT said. “They ask whether further action, possibly including an end to the London listing, may be needed.”
Analysts at TD Newcrest, a Canadian brokerage, summarised the dilemma last week, saying: “We are reluctant to continue recommending [the Canadian stock] when we know that investors can buy an identical economic interest in the company for 22 per cent less via [the London] shares.”
Analysts attribute the discrepancy to hedge fund activity, currency exposures and differing views of the company’s assets on opposite sides of the Atlantic, but many have been startled by the extent of the gap, the FT said.
“Thomson people think the old Thomson [which encompasses legal, healthcare and scientific databases] is greatly underestimated [in London],” said Patrick Wellington, a Morgan Stanley analyst.
UK investors with memories of Reuters’ deep troubles in past market slumps have also been more bearish about prospects for its financial data business, Thomson Reuters Markets, which contributes 60 per cent of group sales and about 40 per cent of profits, the FT said.
“We’re prepared to invest the time and energy and effort with our UK investors to help them understand the dynamics of the business,” chief financial officer Robert Daleo told a conference this week. Extensive investor relations efforts have made little difference so far, however.
The FT said Woodbridge, the Thomson family investment company and the group’s largest shareholder, has attempted to tackle another factor behind the UK discount, providing liquidity to arbitrageurs who struggle to borrow the tightly held Toronto stock by swapping some of its Canadian shares for UK paper.
The strategy has been modestly lucrative. By effectively buying about C$300 million of stock at about a 20 per cent discount, Woodbridge has made about C$60 million, but the sum is small set beside the family holding company’s wealth. Two rounds of such trades have yet to close the gap.
The FT said Woodbridge, which had 70 per cent of Thomson Reuters Corp when the takeover closed, has so far amassed an eight per cent holding in Thomson Reuters Plc.
The FT said it is thought unlikely that Woodbridge would seek to increase its overall holding beyond the current total, which has edged up from 53 per cent to 55 per cent with dividend reinvestments.
A Thomson Reuters spokesman would not comment on the dual listed company (DLC) structure, it said. “People close to the company say it has no plans to change it in the next few months. However, board members review the structure regularly, aware that other DLCs, such as Reed Elsevier, have not seen such wide valuation gaps.”
The London shares represent 24 per cent of the group’s value. North Americans now control more than 50 per cent of the UK stock.
“One theory is that the group can wait until north American ownership is sufficiently high that the majority of London investors ask for Canadian or U.S. stock instead. What that percentage would have to be, however, is unclear,” the FT said.
“Ending the former Reuters’ presence on the London exchange would be a symbolic shock to many.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
Woodbridge signals Thomson Reuters share swap
Friday 21 November 2008
Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s investment vehicle and controlling shareholder of Thomson Reuters, signalled on Friday it may be about to exchange Thomson Reuters Corporation shares for shares in Thomson Reuters PLC.
Under a Canadian regulatory filing in Toronto, Woodbridge would sell up to 15 million common shares in the corporation on the Toronto Stock Exchange and concurrently buy a similar number of ordinary shares in the PLC on the London Stock Exchange.
Woodbridge and other companies affiliated with it beneficially own an aggregate of 444,780,673 Thomson Reuters Corporation shares and 8,334,812 Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares. Its voting interest in Thomson Reuters is approximately 55 per cent.
● SOURCE Fox Business
Under a Canadian regulatory filing in Toronto, Woodbridge would sell up to 15 million common shares in the corporation on the Toronto Stock Exchange and concurrently buy a similar number of ordinary shares in the PLC on the London Stock Exchange.
Woodbridge and other companies affiliated with it beneficially own an aggregate of 444,780,673 Thomson Reuters Corporation shares and 8,334,812 Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares. Its voting interest in Thomson Reuters is approximately 55 per cent.
● SOURCE Fox Business
Thomson family may increase its stake
Saturday 20 September 2008
The Thomson family signalled it may slightly increase its voting interest in Thomson Reuters. In a regulatory filing on Friday, the family said it may sell as many as 10 million of the common shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and spend the proceeds on ordinary shares listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s holding company, said the move was being made to facilitate trading in the stocks.
Based on current prices, the transaction would result in a slight increase in Woodbridge’s 55 per cent voting interest, it said.
Since Thomson’s takeover of Reuters in April, London shares of the new dual-listed company have traded at a large discount to those in Toronto.
● SOURCE The Gazette (Montreal)
Woodbridge, the Thomson family’s holding company, said the move was being made to facilitate trading in the stocks.
Based on current prices, the transaction would result in a slight increase in Woodbridge’s 55 per cent voting interest, it said.
Since Thomson’s takeover of Reuters in April, London shares of the new dual-listed company have traded at a large discount to those in Toronto.
● SOURCE The Gazette (Montreal)
Share buyback scheme extended
Wednesday 04 June 2008
Thomson Reuters said on Wednesday it had received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to renew a US$500 million stock buyback programme for a further 12 months.
The programme will end on 5 June 2009. Shares can be bought on either the TSX or the New York Stock Exchange.
Under the bid, up to 15 million common shares can be repurchased, representing 1.81 per cent of Thomson Reuters’ outstanding shares on 30 May.
Thomson Reuters began purchasing ordinary shares of Thomson Reuters PLC on 18 April, the day after the formation of the merged company. Approximately 9.6 million Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares were purchased for a total cost of about US$302 million from 18 April to 30 May.
Thomson Reuters shares listed in London are trading at a 16 per cent discount to those in New York and Toronto.
● SOURCE Thomson Reuters | Financial Post | Seeking Alpha
The programme will end on 5 June 2009. Shares can be bought on either the TSX or the New York Stock Exchange.
Under the bid, up to 15 million common shares can be repurchased, representing 1.81 per cent of Thomson Reuters’ outstanding shares on 30 May.
Thomson Reuters began purchasing ordinary shares of Thomson Reuters PLC on 18 April, the day after the formation of the merged company. Approximately 9.6 million Thomson Reuters PLC ordinary shares were purchased for a total cost of about US$302 million from 18 April to 30 May.
Thomson Reuters shares listed in London are trading at a 16 per cent discount to those in New York and Toronto.
● SOURCE Thomson Reuters | Financial Post | Seeking Alpha
TRI/TRIL - an arbitrageur’s dream
Tuesday 13 May 2008
The gap between the prices of Thomson Reuters’ dual-listed shares in London and Toronto has lingered longer than expected, The Globe and Mail said on Tuesday.
When the two shares began trading separately on 17 April and the UK shares (stock symbol TRIL) lagged their Canadian counterpart (stock symbol TRI) by a significant margin logic suggested it would only be a matter of time before they eventually settled at a similar level, since both represent an equal investment in the same assets.
“But for reasons that escape the company and have left investors scratching their heads, the gap between the two has lingered longer than expected – nearly a month...” the newspaper said.
“With that in mind, arbitrageurs are buying the UK-traded Thomson Reuters PLC shares, while shorting Thomson Reuters Corp on the Toronto Stock Exchange, hoping to capitalize on the gap.”
Short selling involves borrowing and then selling shares in a company in expectation of buying them back at a lower price and profiting on the difference.
The Globe and Mail said that once exchange rates are factored in the London shares have been trading at roughly 15-20 per cent less than the Toronto listing.
Company executives acknowledged the discrepancy at the new company’s annual meeting last week in Toronto. But chief financial officer Robert Daleo declined to guess why the discount exists, the newspaper said.
“We do know that there are a lot of shorts that were put on the Thomson stock that have to be unwound and they have to do it over time, so it could take a while,” he was quoted as saying.
“Markets are generally rational, so it may take a little while longer,” he said. “How long? We have no idea. We do know that [the UK price] doesn’t represent the true intrinsic value of the company.”
One arbitrage player who has taken a position in both shares hoping to profit when the gap narrows is New York-based money manager Glazer Capital. Its president, Paul Glazer, is reported to have written more than 80 letters to executives of 14 large institutional investors in Canada, hoping to prod them into buying the UK shares.
“Given that the Canadian and UK shares are, by design, economically equivalent to each other, it defies all financial theory that the shares of one holding company should trade at a 20-per-cent-plus premium to the others that are just as easily obtained,” the newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
“It is hard to explain why a holder of [the Toronto listing] could not sell these shares and buy a 20-per-cent larger interest in the same company by using the proceeds to buy [the UK traded] shares.”
● SOURCE The Globe and Mail
When the two shares began trading separately on 17 April and the UK shares (stock symbol TRIL) lagged their Canadian counterpart (stock symbol TRI) by a significant margin logic suggested it would only be a matter of time before they eventually settled at a similar level, since both represent an equal investment in the same assets.
“But for reasons that escape the company and have left investors scratching their heads, the gap between the two has lingered longer than expected – nearly a month...” the newspaper said.
“With that in mind, arbitrageurs are buying the UK-traded Thomson Reuters PLC shares, while shorting Thomson Reuters Corp on the Toronto Stock Exchange, hoping to capitalize on the gap.”
Short selling involves borrowing and then selling shares in a company in expectation of buying them back at a lower price and profiting on the difference.
The Globe and Mail said that once exchange rates are factored in the London shares have been trading at roughly 15-20 per cent less than the Toronto listing.
Company executives acknowledged the discrepancy at the new company’s annual meeting last week in Toronto. But chief financial officer Robert Daleo declined to guess why the discount exists, the newspaper said.
“We do know that there are a lot of shorts that were put on the Thomson stock that have to be unwound and they have to do it over time, so it could take a while,” he was quoted as saying.
“Markets are generally rational, so it may take a little while longer,” he said. “How long? We have no idea. We do know that [the UK price] doesn’t represent the true intrinsic value of the company.”
One arbitrage player who has taken a position in both shares hoping to profit when the gap narrows is New York-based money manager Glazer Capital. Its president, Paul Glazer, is reported to have written more than 80 letters to executives of 14 large institutional investors in Canada, hoping to prod them into buying the UK shares.
“Given that the Canadian and UK shares are, by design, economically equivalent to each other, it defies all financial theory that the shares of one holding company should trade at a 20-per-cent-plus premium to the others that are just as easily obtained,” the newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
“It is hard to explain why a holder of [the Toronto listing] could not sell these shares and buy a 20-per-cent larger interest in the same company by using the proceeds to buy [the UK traded] shares.”
● SOURCE The Globe and Mail
Bridging the Thomson Reuters gap
Tuesday 06 May 2008
Shares of Thomson Reuters listed in London continue to trade at a huge discount to those listed in Toronto, the Financial Times reported. Dual-listed shares rarely trade perfectly efficiently, the FT’s Lex column said, but a gap of this scale, about one fifth, is unheard of.
Technical factors are at play, the FT said. As Thomson Reuters is a dual-listed company, the only way to unwind the classic merger arbitrage trade – long Reuters, short Thomson – is to sell the shares in London and buy in Toronto. Yet the shortage of buyers in London also reflects very different views of the new company’s prospects.
Traditional Canadian holders of Thomson still view it as a defensive professional publisher while the view from London is that the Canadians have no idea what is about to hit them, the FT said. Reuters is still seen as a hostage to the fortunes of its primary customers, the investment banks. “During the last downturn it was clobbered.”
Chief executive Tom Glocer hopes to work on UK shareholders, the FT said. “Either they don’t get the professional side of the business, or they understand the financials side all too well,” it added.
● SOURCE Financial Times
Technical factors are at play, the FT said. As Thomson Reuters is a dual-listed company, the only way to unwind the classic merger arbitrage trade – long Reuters, short Thomson – is to sell the shares in London and buy in Toronto. Yet the shortage of buyers in London also reflects very different views of the new company’s prospects.
Traditional Canadian holders of Thomson still view it as a defensive professional publisher while the view from London is that the Canadians have no idea what is about to hit them, the FT said. Reuters is still seen as a hostage to the fortunes of its primary customers, the investment banks. “During the last downturn it was clobbered.”
Chief executive Tom Glocer hopes to work on UK shareholders, the FT said. “Either they don’t get the professional side of the business, or they understand the financials side all too well,” it added.
● SOURCE Financial Times
FT marks a Reuters milestone
Thursday 17 April 2008
On the first day of the new Thomson Reuters company the Financial Times carried the following report under the headline “Journalists shrink under Thomson”:
“Some 157 years after Paul Julius Reuter abandoned a trial with carrier pigeons and began telegraphing share prices between the London and Paris stock exchanges, Reuters’ newswire business accounts for less than 7 per cent of its revenues, writes Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.
“Last night, as the company’s journalists faced the prospect of becoming an even smaller part of a larger empire, they met at The Old Bell, their favoured pub when they were based on Fleet Street – once the heart of London’s newspapers and agencies.
“The gathering, described as ‘a wake’ by some insiders, came the day before a celebration at the ExCel centre in Docklands for more than 3,500 staff.
“The Thomson takeover, which will see the company’s far smaller wire business merge with Reuters media division, has triggered many staff moves and renewed questions about morale that last surfaced when the shares touched 100p in 2003.
“Some of the rumblings boil down to annoyances such as changes of e-mail address, but there is another factor, according to David Anderson, editor of IMD Reference.
“‘Anecdotally, one of the worries doing the rounds has been that because Reuters share options would vest, a lot of them [the staff] would become pretty well off and could depart,’ he said.”
● SOURCE Financial Times
‘Old Reuters’ mourned in Fleet Street
Wednesday 16 April 2008
Reuters staff, past and present, met in Fleet Street to mark the passing of the “old Reuters” on the eve of the birth of Thomson Reuters.
The London reunion drew people from editorial, sales and marketing, technical support, finance and administration.
The Old Bell was bursting, with drinkers spilling over to other pubs and wine bars in the neighbourhood including The Cheshire Cheese. The Punch Tavern captured the spirit of the evening with a sign regretting ”the passing of Reuters”.
