All My Net Biz

Scardino, who turns 60 on Wednesday, said the group had made record profits in 2006 and told City analysts that earnings would be at the top end of their expectations.

She refused to comment on the growing bid rumours, which saw Pearson shares hit a four-and-a-half year high last week on reports that US private-equity group KKR was lining up a 7bn bid for the Penguin and Financial Times group.

City earnings-per-share forecasts had until today ranged from 36.1p to 40p. In headline profit terms, that would translate into profits of more than 500m, compared with 466m in 2005.

Scardino said: ‘A strong all-round performance in our key fourth-quarter selling season capped another very good year. All around Pearson, our investments in content and technology are paying off. Those advantages have produced Pearson’s highest-ever profit in 2006, and will bolster our future growth.’

Analysts said that, without making any forecast, she was clearly suggesting there is more to come, and any potential bidder would have to fight against a strong growth story.

Investors are sceptical about the KKR bid story, which some say has already been knocked down, particularly as an offer of 7bn is little ahead of today’s stock market value of 6.79bn and way behind some analysts’ break-up values for the businesses. But Scardino has come under pressure as she celebrates her 10th anniversary of running the business as the first lady of the FTSE 100.

Under her watch, various parts of the operation have had disappointing performances at different times, and the shares have risen by just 25% in a decade. They have put on 8% this month, butwere today down 5p at 836p.

Scardino claimed today that the business was firing on all cylinders. Pearson said in a trading statement ahead of full-year results at the end of next month that all its businesses had traded well in the fourth quarter. p I:11}

By far the largest section, Pearson Education, which runs and publishes school and college courses and exams in the US and UK, ‘ sustained its good revenue momentum and achieved further margin improvement, ahead of expectations’.

The statement said: ‘The Financial Times added circulation and advertising, and Penguin had a good year-end publishing and selling season.’

There had been some fears among analysts that book publisher Penguin may not have done so well following a profits warning last month from rival , which partly blamed a poor run-up to Christmas in the book trade.

Pearson said its tax rate in 2006 was likely to be 32%, at the lower end of its previous guidance of 32% to 34%.

It added that the $600m (304m) sale of its US outsourcing business to Veritas Capital was due to complete in the first three months of this year.

Other stories:
Yesterday’s trading: Pearson sell-off talk
Pearson finds 338m sell-off solution
Pearson on way to record for full year
What’s next on the menu?

In an extraordinary piece of research, the top New York investment bank predicted its home market will continue to lose share to rivals such as London, Hong Kong and Dubai.

The report comes in the wake of a study from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which predicted New York could lose 4-7% of its share of investment banking and trading markets over five years, leading to the loss of 60,000 jobs.

American politicians have been hoping that an overhaul of excessively strict regulations could turn back the clock.

But Goldman said there is nothing New York can do to stop the rise of bigger finance centres abroad, because they are driven by the emergence of huge new economies.

The report, entitled ‘Is Wall Street Doomed?’, reckons America’s distance from fast-growing economies such as China, India and Russia, will mean it is eclipsed by foreign markets.

‘We see the growth of capital markets outside the US as a natural consequence of economic growth and market maturation elsewhere. The US has in fact been losing market share for several decades,’ author Jim O’Neill said.

The City of London is particularly well placed because of its time zone, language and geographic position.

While analysis has focused on the attractions of London’s ‘light touch’ regulation system, that is only one factor behind its success, the research showed.

Already, nearly one third of the 1.4 trillion of daily foreign exchange turnover trades happen in London, more than the next three largest markets - New York, Tokyo and Singapore - combined.

Whereas the US share of world equity markets stood at nearly 70% in 1970, it has now slumped below 40%.

The changes have been reflected within Goldman itself. It will shift chief administrative officer Edward Forst from New York to London in response to the more rapid growth of non-US business.

O’Neill said Wall Street’s relative decline needn’t be seen as a disaster because growth in other markets should still boost business. ‘Capital markets growth is not a zero-sum game,’ he wrote.

Furnace and stove oil went up by 4.5 cents per litre at midnight on P.E.I. in the end of month price adjustment by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.

That puts furnace oil at an average 69.5 cents per litre. IRAC notes says the price of a barrel of crude oil has increased by $6 since the mid-month price adjustment.

The price of gasoline remains the same, however, and propane prices are down by 2.0 cents per litre.

Hackers who stolecustomer information from the company that owns Winners and HomeSense did not access Canadian debit card transactions, thepresident of the retail chains said Saturday.

That’s the conclusion after TJX Cos., the U.S. parent firm of Canadian retailers, conducted its own investigation into the breach it reported on Jan. 17, Winners and Homesense president Michael MacMillan said.

MacMillan expressed his “deepest regrets” over the incident in a full page ad in the Toronto Star.

“Based on our investigation, we can now report that we believe that transactions using debit cards issued by Canadian banks were not involved in the systems breach,” he said.

TJX Cos. revealed in Januarythat millions of credit card accounts may have been compromised after hackers stole customer information from its computer systems. The company said the stolen information covers transactions from 2003 into2006.

The company, based in Framingham, Mass., said at the time that the full extent of the theft and number of customers affected was not known.

MacMillan tried to assure customers in Saturday’s adthatthe company wastaking the problem seriously.

He said it has increased security of its computer systems, hired two computer security firms to investigate the problem, told police about the crime and worked with major credit card companies to protect customers whose credit card information may have been stolen.

“I wish to express my deepest regrets for any difficulties you may have experienced due to this incident. At Winners and HomeSense, our customers have been our top priority for more than 20 years and I can assure you that you will always come first,” he said.

According to CP, Canada’s privacy commissioner and Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner are investigating how the security breach occurred.

TJX, a U.S. discount retailer, discovered the problem in mid-December after hackers got into its computer systems. The systems process and store information about transactions using credit and debit cards, cheques and merchandise returns.

TJX operates 184 Winners and 68 HomeSense stores in Canada.

It also has 826 T.J. Maxx, 751 Marshalls, 271 HomeGoods, 162 A.J. Wright stores and36 Bob’s Stores in the United States. In Europe, the company runs 212 T.K. Maxx stores. With files from the Canadian Press

NEW YORK (AP) - The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported a larger-than-expected draw on stocks of heating oil and diesel fuel, while inventories of crude oil continued to rise.

The EIA reported crude inventories rose by 1.4 million barrels to 329 million barrels for the week ending Feb. 23 — roughly in line with the market forecast. Analysts expected crude stocks to rise by 1.2 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Crude inventories are at the upper end of the average range for this time of year, the EIA said.

A barrel of crude oil was down 77 cents at $60.69 in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The report showed a bigger-than-expected, 3.8 million-barrel draw on distillates to 124.5 million barrels. Distillate inventories, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, were forecast to fall by 2.6 million barrels amid frigid temperatures last week in the Northeast, the nation’s largest heating oil market.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels to 220.2 million barrels. Market analysts expected gasoline stockpiles to decline by 1.6 million barrels.

In the equity market, shares of the nation’s largest oil companies mostly traded higher. Exxon Mobil Corp. shares jumped $1.23, or 2 percent, to $73.22 on the New York Stock Exchange, as the broader market stabilized after a major sell-off on Tuesday.

Among the independent oil producers, which don’t refine or market petroleum products, shares of Devon Energy Corp. fell 7 cents to $65.50 and Chesapeake Energy Corp. shares rose 24 cents to $30.61 on the Big Board refiners, including Tesoro Corp. and Sunoco Inc., rose as well — Tesoro up $2.14, or 2.4 percent, at $90.78 and Sunoco 85 cents higher at $64.87.

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