Notes to the consolidated financial statements
Notes contents28. Treasury shares
Pearson plc | Interactive Data | Total | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of shares 000s | £m | Number of shares 000s | £m | £m | |||
At 1 January 2008 | 11,761 | 141 | 7,229 | 75 | 216 | ||
Purchase of treasury shares | 2,028 | 12 | 1,976 | 35 | 47 | ||
Release of treasury shares | (3,341) | (41) | – | – | (41) | ||
At 31 December 2008 | 10,448 | 112 | 9,205 | 110 | 222 | ||
Purchase of treasury shares | 2,200 | 13 | 1,280 | 20 | 33 | ||
Release of treasury shares | (2,983) | (29) | – | – | (29) | ||
At 31 December 2009 | 9,665 | 96 | 10,485 | 130 | 226 |
The Group holds Pearson plc shares in trust to satisfy its obligations under its restricted share plans (see note 26). These shares, representing 1.2% (2008: 1.3%) of called-up share capital, are treated as treasury shares for accounting purposes and have a par value of 25p per share.
Interactive Data hold their own shares in respect of share buy-back programmes. These shares are held as treasury shares and have a par value of $0.01.
The nominal value of Pearson plc treasury shares amounts to £2.4m (2008: £2.6m). The nominal value of Interactive Data treasury shares amounts to £0.07m (2008: £0.06m).
At 31 December 2009 the market value of Pearson plc treasury shares was £86.1m (2008: £67.0m) and the market value of Interactive Data treasury shares was £164.3m (2008: £157.9m).