Revenue for the year rose 15% to £3,592 million (US$5,352 million). Underlying revenue, which excludes the impact of acquisitions, disposals and currency movements, was up 13%. Fourth quarter revenues were up 17% on an underlying basis compared to the same period last year, some 6% higher than the average for the three previous quarters.

Profit before tax (PBT) was up 4%, and earnings per share rose 26% to 37.9 pence.

Reuters is one-year into a business transformation programme designed to position the group for the emergence of the Internet. Chief executive Peter Job says: "The Internet and its technologies remain a powerful driver for us, permitting us to improve the way we work and help our customers to enhance their performance. The collapse of the valuation bubble around internet stocks has not affected our strategy, which goes forward as we stated last year."

Within Reuters Financial, revenue at the Information business division grew by 7%, driven by strong sales of domestic and off-trading floor products. In particular, sales of the US domestic equity product, Reuters Plus, topped 60,000 units in the year. Reuters says it also beat internal targets for shipments of its flagship information product 3000Xtra, recording in excess of 27,000 unit sales.

Revenue from Reuters Trading Solutions (RTS) was up 5% in overall terms and 4% on an underlying basis. Underlying revenue from transaction products was down 2% in the year in line with recent trends. Underlying revenue from Applications and Enterprise Solutions rose 9%, reports Reuters, as sales of middleware and order routing solutions continued to recover from the millennium-induced slowdown. Underlying revenue from the sales of solutions to the providers of retail financial services grew 24%, albeit from a low base. Underlying RTS revenues grew 14% in the fourth quarter in part reflecting weak comparables in the previous year.

At Instinet, the inter-dealer brokerage which is scheduled for an IPO later in the year, revenue rose 53% to £804 million (US$1,198 million). After a first quarter in which Instinet lost market share as a result of the explosion in retail and day trading activity it recovered market share to account for almost 10% of the combined New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq trading volumes in the fourth quarter, reports Reuters. On an underlying basis, international revenue rose 61% and now accounts for 24% of Instinet’s total.

The overall growth in operating profit at Instinet, at 22%, was slower than the rate of revenue growth, says Reuters, reflecting investment in the development of the fixed income securities platform, which was launched during the year, and the development of the retail brokerage product. Total investment in these two initiatives in 2000 was £66 million (US$98 million).