Merrill Lynch analyst Paul Sullivan has said he expects Reuters' third-quarter revenues to decline 8.1% to £845m (€1.3bn), largely driven by sharp declines at Instinet, the electronic share trading service, which are down 37% to £119m.

Sullivan said delays in systems upgrades in the investment banking and asset management markets have had a negative impact on Reuters' recurring revenues. "By division, investment banking and brokerage [IBB] should post the sharpest fall, followed by asset management (only more recently turning down) with treasury proving more robust. We expect an underlying recurring revenue decline of 12% in IBB, and 6% in asset management with declines in outright solution sales in these divisions of 50% and 15% respectively," he said.