Embattled textbooks publisher Pearson today said profits will slip further in 2020, hit by coronavirus.
The firm, which sells educational books around the globe, said its performance would be affected by school and university closures as the epidemic shows no signs of abating.
Schools across China face long closures while all schools in Hong Kong have been shut until March 2. Outgoing boss John Fallon said: “Testing centres and schools around the world continue to close. This will inevitably have an impact.”
Pearson today posted disappointing results for 2019, as textbooks sales in its core US market fell 12% and profit came in at £581 million.
The publisher has pencilled in profits of £410 million to £490 million for the year ahead as it continues to struggle with its move to digital. The shares fell 4%, or 20p, to 564p. Pearson announced a strategy to focus on digital last year, but the move to selling educational products online has not replaced declining textbooks sales.
Fallon said: “When I joined in 2013 we were selling 20 million textbooks in the US. Now it is just two million.”
Fallon said the search for his replacement was “progressing” but refused to give a departure date.
