News and information provider Reuters today claimed to have matched the market share of arch-rival Bloomberg for the first time in "at least 10 years".
As it delivered forecast-busting growth in first quarter revenues to £633 million, Reuters argued that over the course of last year it increased its share of the £6 billion market for financial information and services by 1 per cent, to 27 per cent.
According to Reuters' calculations, this puts it on a level footing with Bloomberg, the aggressive American competitor that has stolen a march on its media rival for more than a decade.
Providing news screens, trading terminals and data feeds to the City and other investment centres accounts for 80 per cent of Reuters' revenues - and matching Bloomberg in this area represents a major victory for the group.
"We've done an enormous amount of work on our product line. This shows that Reuters is competitive again," a spokeswoman for the media group told Times Online this morning.
She said a move in City dealing rooms towards complex, automated "algorithmic" trading was benefiting Reuters and was a strategy the group had successfully predicted.
However, she acknowledged that Reuters' market share calculations were strongly helped by Telerate, the financial data provider it bought last year for £175 million. And she noted that Reuters now includes details of the data feeds it provides for traders and analysts as part of its market share calculations.
Reuters, which as the former firm favourite of equity traders lost out heavily when the stock markets began to slide, has been undergoing a rejuvenation under chief executive Tom Glocer.
Most recently, Mr Glocer put in place the "Core Plus" growth plan, which Reuters said today had generated an initial 0.5 per cent of growth.
As Mr Glocer said today that revenues had risen by 13 per cent - comfortably ahead of analysts' predictions - the Reuters boss said underlying revenues had grown by 4 per cent and that full-year revenues should grow by about 5 per cent.
Some 347,000 people now subscribe to Reuters terminals, an increase of 1,000 subscriptions on last time.
"We have delivered a good first quarter, which provides a strong base for the rest of the year. Our market share data confirms what our first quarter sales and our customers are telling us - that our products are highly competitive and we are winning in the marketplace," Mr Glocer said.
Reuters also said it was in the "final stages" of discussions with the trustees of its defined benefit pension schemes over a package of plans that includes a possible one-off payment to cover an inflation increase in payments to its pensioners this year. Last year, the media group recorded a deficit in its UK scheme of £265 million.
Shares in Reuters edged up 0.5p to 399p, valuing the group at more than £5.3 billion.
