Thomson Reuters looks abroad to make up for Wall Street

“We have seen a significant reduction and lost business as a result of Bear Sterns and cutbacks in other areas, but many of our large accounts continue to hold up fairly well,” Daleo said at a media and telecommunications conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

He said Thomson Reuters’ Top 25 accounts (also known as “focus group accounts”) represent about 13 per cent of revenues. However, an internal shift in perspective has helped soften the financial impact of some of the firms closing their doors.

“We have seen, all year long, declines in sales to the focus group accounts, but we have been able to offset those with good performance in other areas,” he said.

“We have continued through the first nine months to see strong performance in places like the Middle East, Asia, and certain segments of Europe.”

Daleo declined to provide Q4 or 2009 forecasts. “We remain very encouraged by the continued performance of the business across all of our units, and I’ll leave it at that,” he said.

Daleo said Thomson Reuters has about $8 billion in debt with an average maturity of about six and a quarter years and a 5.5 per cent interest rate. It has also paid off debt from Reuters.

“We really don’t have to go back into the debt markets to refinance our long-term debt in 2009,” he said. In addition, the company has a credit facility of $2.5 billion which he said was “totally untapped”.

Daleo also spoke about the difference between Thomson Reuters share prices in London and Toronto. The London shares trade at a discount of nearly 30 per cent to the Toronto shares and the company has been unable to close the gap.

“We’re prepared to invest the time and energy and effort with our UK investors to help them understand the dynamics of the business,” he said.

The London shares closed down two per cent at 1,458 pence. The Toronto shares closed 5.63 per cent at C$31.99. ■