Thomson Reuters shares fall on slower revenue growth

By Robert MacMillan and Georgina Prodhan

SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - News and information publisher Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) (TRIL.L) reported slower revenue growth as the U.S. credit crisis forced investment banks to cut budgets and lay off thousands of workers, sending its shares down 5 percent.

The company affirmed its 2008 outlook, citing resilience in its Professional division, which sells databases and tools to accountants, lawyers, tax, health and other professionals.

Investors, however, worried that the real test would come when customers set their 2009 budgets.

Thomson Reuters said on Tuesday second-quarter pro forma revenue rose 11 percent from a year earlier to $3.4 billion (1.8 billion pounds), slowing from a 12 percent rise to $3.3 billion in the first quarter.

The pro forma results assume Thomson and Reuters had been operating as one company in the second quarter of last year.

Revenue in the Markets division, which includes the Reuters and Thomson news operations as well as financial data and tools for investment banks and other financial firms, rose 12 percent to $2.1 billion.

But the unit's closely watched organic growth rate -- which excludes the impact of currency exchange fluctuations and acquisitions -- was 7 percent, slower than the first quarter's 9 percent. Analysts had been looking for organic growth of 7 percent to 8 percent for the second quarter.

"The results were not great. The market was pricing in half-decent figures and that's what it got," said Manoj Ladwa, a derivatives trader at TradIndex in London.