A year of financial and strategic delivery
Key documents
Financial performance highlights
3
%*
Underlying sales growth
16.9
%
Adjusted operating profit
24.0
p
Proposed final dividend
£
350
m
Intention to commence share buyback
*Exluding OPM and the Strategic Review businesses
Group Financial Expectations
2025 outlook
We expect Group underlying sales growth and adjusted operating profit will be in line with current market expectations. Our interest charge will be c.£65m reflecting the impact of the Education Bond and our intention to commence a £350m share buyback. We expect the effective tax rate on adjusted profit before tax to be between 24% and 25%. From January this year, Workforce Skills became Enterprise Learning and Skills, bringing together Pearson’s enterprise sales capabilities globally (excluding those of Pearson VUE).
- In Assessment & Qualifications we expect sales growth of low to mid-single digit.
- In Virtual Learning we expect to return to growth in H2 and the full year, driven by enrolment increases, partially from new school openings, for the 25/26 academic year.
- In Higher Education we expect sales growth in 2025 to be higher than in 2024 as we build on the successful results of our sales team transformation and product innovations, particularly using AI.
- In English Language Learning we expect that sales growth will moderate given the likely impacts of elections on immigration rates in 2025 affecting our PTE business.
- In Enterprise Learning and Skills we expect sales to grow high single digit with Vocational Qualifications seeing solid growth and the addition of several new contracts for Enterprise Solutions.
- Included within this guidance is new investment to support our strategy and drive growth, including brand and innovation spend, as well as transformation costs. This investment is more than offset by the margin on sales growth, and operational improvements which drive the Group’s margin expansion.
- We expect a free cash flow conversion of 90-100% plus the anticipated £0.1bn State Aid repayment in 2025.