A £45 million cost associated with Thomson's £8.7bn takeover of Reuters helped cut pre-tax profits of the British financial information group 13 per cent to £273 million in the year to December.

Reuters said in a shareholder circular on Friday that combined deal fees for the Thomson/Reuters merger are $240 million (£120 million).

Despite the costs, Reuters said it had seen its strongest performance in the past 7 years.

Trading profit rose 43 per cent to £385 million, and Reuters said cost savings were ahead of plan and new products moving to profitability earlier than expected.

Revenues rose 7 per cent to £2.60 billion, in line with analysts' forecast. Operating profit rose 14 per cent to £292 million and margins improved from 12 per cent to 14.8 per cent.

Reuters said that the decrease in pre-tax profits “reflects lower profits from disposals than in 2006, when Reuters sold the majority of its stake in Factiva.”

The group that the “major driver of Reuters £6 million share of losses from associates and joint ventures was FXMarketSpace.”

Reuters said that sales have made a strong start and first quarter revenue growth is expected to be about 9 per cent.

Tom Glocer, the chief executive of Reuters and new boss of the combined group, said: “Reuters has delivered a signature final year as a standalone company. We set ourselves ambitious goals for 2007, did not waver from these, and despite significant integration activities and a volatile market we have exceeded all our targets.”

Last month, the European Commission has approved Thomson's acquisition of its rival Reuters, paving the way for the creation of the world's biggest financial information group.

Thomson Reuters will provide full year guidance for the enlarged group with its first quarter results on 1 May 2008.

Mr Glocer added: “I am confident that the new Thomson Reuters will deliver outstanding benefits to customers, opportunities for employees and great value for shareholders.”

The merger of Reuters and Thomson will see the creation of two divisions - professionals and markets. Professionals, which includes non-financial markets-driven software aimed at the legal and healthcare industries, is expected to account for 40 per cent of group revenues. The other 60 per cent of revenues is driven by financial markets. There will be a dual-listing in London and Toronto.

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