In a trading statement ahead of its annual general meeting today, the international media and education giant said that the FT's advertising revenue has been boosted by strong growth in recruitment, luxury goods and online advertising, with forward booking running ahead of last year.
However, despite Pearson's business newspaper portfolio as a whole returning to profit, a statement from the firm could only say "we expect the Financial Times to be around breakeven this year".
This latest announcement is unlikely to halt continuing speculation that Pearson could sell the FT. This despite Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino previously insisting that the FT would be sold, "over my dead body".
Earlier this month one of the firm's largest investors Franklin Templeton said a sell-off should be considered unless it generated "tens of million of pounds" a year in profits.
The FT made a loss of £9m last year. Potential bidders if a sale was sanctioned are rumoured to include Rupert Murdoch. But if this happened he would first have to sell off The Times under competition rules.
Chairman Dennis Stevenson, for whom this will be his last AGM after announcing his retirement in February, was upbeat about overall performance at the firm.
"Our businesses have excellent prospects both this year and beyond, we have reduced our costs by close to $400m and invested behind the long-term strength of our franchises.
"We are seeing early signs of the long-awaited recovery in corporate advertising and we are confident of strong growth on our financial measures."
Earlier this month, the FT launched a free, afternoon print and online briefing publication called FTpm.
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