Pearson Plc, the publisher of Penguin books, has denied it is planning to sell the Financial Times newspaper in order to focus on its core education business, as reported by Bloomberg yesterday, citing people with knowledge of the situation.

Reacting to Bloomberg's report, Charles Goldsmith, a spokesman for Pearson said, ''We have said many times that the FT is a valued and valuable part of Pearson. We are not in the habit of responding to rumours, speculation or reports about our portfolio, however this particular Bloomberg story is wrong.''

Speculation of a possible divestement of the respected financial daily have been in circulation for some time and surfaced a week after Pearson agreed to merge its Penguin books unit with Germany's Bertelsmann SE's Random House to create the largest book publisher in the UK and the US (See: Penguin, Random House in £2.4-bn merger pact).http://www.domainb.com/industry/Publishing/20121029_penguin.html

Analysts had said that the deal was an indication that Pearson planned to focus on its growing education business.

The Bloomberg report said that Pearson has not yet hired an investment bank to advise on the sale, but may start the sale process before the exit of Marjorie Scardino, the company's CEO, who is stepping down in January 2012.

Her departure raised questions over whether the Financial Times Group, which owns the newspaper also owns a 50-per cent stake in The Economist, would be sold.

According to some analysts, potential buyers for the Financial Times would include Bloomberg, News Corp and Thomson Reuters.

Bloomberg would be an obvious buyer given it has print operations with its Businessweek magazine, while News Corp, which was in the process of splitting off its publishing holdings, could use the Financial Times as an important part for that new business.

But News Corp bid may attract regulatory concerns since it already owns the London-based newspaper The Times.

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, had earlier attempted to buy the Financial Times, but was turned down, said the report.

The Financial Times Group contributed to 7 per cent of sales at Pearson last year, while education made up 75 per cent, and Penguin book publisher accounted for 18 per cent.

Founded in 1888 by James Sheridan and Horatio Bottomley, the Financial Times has an average daily readership of 2.2 million people worldwide as on November 2011, while the Financial Times.com has 4.5 million registered users and over 285,000 digital subscribers, as well as 600,000 paying users.