The Economist Group has the "capacity and appetite" for larger acquisitions, its chief executive said yesterday, even after it handed more than £50m back to shareholders last year in special and ordinary dividends.

The publisher of the Economist, CFO and Roll Call titles, in which Pearson's Financial Times division holds a 50 per cent stake, will today announce a 27 per cent jump in operating profit to £36m for the year to March 31 on 12 per cent growth in turnover to £248m.