Shares in publishing group Pearson (PSON) dropped 2.5% to 440.2p as it gave its latest assessment of the impact of coronavirus on the business.
Pearson said its revenue fell 5% in the first quarter, owing to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 crisis including school closures.
The company, however, said it had significant financial headroom and pressed on with plans to pay a final dividend for 2019.
It also said it was launching new short courses targeted at furloughed and unemployed workers.
In its own business, Pearson said it had chosen not to furlough staff that were instead being re-deployed to support areas of greatest need and opportunity.
Its chief executive and chief financial officer were taking a 25% and 20% pay cut, respectively, the chairman a 50% cut and directors a 25% cut.
Pearson said its proposed 2019 final dividend of 13.5p per share would be voted on at its annual general meeting on Friday and would be payable on 7 May subject to shareholder approval.
‘We are in a strong financial position with a healthy balance sheet, low net debt and good liquidity,’ chief executive John Fallon said.
The company had already been trying to wean itself off its reliance on high margin sales of expensive academic textbooks and the current outbreak could help push this process along.
Shore Capital analyst Roddy Davidson says: ‘The task of reliably evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on PSON’s financial performance over the coming months remains extremely challenging and we plan to revisit our financial forecast accordingly.
‘That said, its financial strength should be of comfort to investors, proactive action by management is encouraging and its exposure to/substantial sunk investment in digital products and online learning are a longer-term positive.’
