Pearson plc (PSON) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

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Replay transcript excerpt

WEBVTT 00:00:00.031 -- 00:00:04.839 Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pearson's 2026 Q1 Trading Update. 00:00:04.839 -- 00:00:08.805 We will begin with a brief update on our first quarter performance, followed by an open 00:00:08.805 -- 00:00:13.052 Q&A session. If you'd like to ask a question, press star 1. 00:00:13.052 -- 00:00:18.560 To withdraw your question, press star 2. For operator assistance, press star 0. 00:00:18.560 -- 00:00:20.824 And with that, I'll hand over to Omar. 00:00:20.824 -- 00:00:24.710 Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 00:00:24.710 -- 00:00:27.723 I'm here in London with our CFO, Sally Johnson. 00:00:27.723 -- 00:00:31.326 Many of you will already have seen our Q&A results announced this morning, and so I'll 00:00:31.326 -- 00:00:35.851 just pick out a few key points, and then we'll open it up for Q&A. 00:00:35.851 -- 00:00:40.936 First, we're encouraged by the good stuff of 2026, reporting revenue growth of 4%. 00:00:40.936 -- 00:00:44.099 I'm pleased with the momentum that we're seeing in our business, driven by continued 00:00:44.099 -- 00:00:48.843 strong execution from all our teams. We remain confident in achieving our guidance for 00:00:48.843 -- 00:00:54.069 2026, and we reconfirm our medium-term outlook. 00:00:54.069 -- 00:00:57.410 Looking at performance by business unit. 00:00:57.440 -- 00:01:01.744 Assessments and qualifications declined 1% as we had expected, and this is on track to 00:01:01.744 -- 00:01:06.868 return to growth in Q2 and beyond. Supported by new business such as the Standards 00:01:06.868 -- 00:01:12.053 and Testing Agency in the UK, and recently extended or awarded contracts including ATCA 00:01:12.053 -- 00:01:14.513 and Google CLAC. 00:01:14.575 -- 00:01:19.339 V...