Pearson plc (PSON) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone and welcome to Pearson's 2026 interim results. Today we will host a presentation followed by a Q&A session. There will be two ways to submit your questions. If you'd like to ask your questions personally please use the numbers that are displayed on screen. These lines will open following the main presentation. Alternatively please type your questions into the questions tab at the top right of the screen and we will address them in turn at the end. And with that I'll hand over to Omar. Thank you, Alex. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you again today. I've really been looking forward to it. I'm pleased to be joined by Simon Robson, our great new CFO. Simon will run you through our financial results for the first half, alongside his initial reflections following early engagement with the Pearson teams and many of you in the investment community as well. And as usual, we'll be joined by our colleagues Art, Tom, Vishal and Sharon for Q&A. Let me start with the key takeaways from today's presentation. First, we have delivered a good H1 financial result, with revenue up 4%, profit up 14%, and EPS up 19%, alongside continued strong cash flow strength. Second, we are on track to deliver our guidance for the year. and third, we continue to be excited about the future for Pearson. Our relationship with a leading AI lab reinforces our conviction that advances in technology are driving major demand for the validation of new skills with Pearson uniquely placed to benefit. Before we go into the results, let me begin with reminding you of Pearson's unique characteristics and enduring strengths that drive resilient profit and cash flow and that help deliver our encouraging financial results in H1. 90% of our profit comes from assessments and verificatio...