Pearson : no plans to sell FT

British publisher Pearson said on Tuesday that its flagship business newspaper The Financial Times was not for sale, in response to recent media speculation. "Pearson has not initiated any type of sale process for the Financial Times and has no plans to do so," said a company spokesman contacted by AFP. The New York Times had reported on Sunday that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was mulling the purchase of Pearson's Financial Times Group division. The paper had cited people close to Bloomberg. In morning trading on Tuesday, Pearson shares rallied by 1.10 percent to 1,195 pence on the back of the speculation. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, on which the group is listed, was 0.04-percent lower at 5,919.56 points. Last month, Pearson had also denied media reports that it was planning to sell the FT to financial information group Thomson Reuters. Speculation over the sale of the newspaper was stoked by recent news of the departure of two key executives. Pearson announced in November that Rona Fairhead, chairman and chief executive of the Financial Times Group and a main board director, would leave the group in April 2013. And in October, Pearson revealed that its chief executive Marjorie Scardino would step down at the end of December, ending her 16-year tenure.