The firm that owns the Financial Times is reportedly exploring a sale of the newspaper.

Bloomberg reports that Pearson Plc has received interest from potential buyers.

Pearson is said to be sounding out bidders for a sale which may value the publication at as much as €1.47bn.

Shares in Pearson rose on the news, before dropping back slightly.

According to its website, the Financial Times has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 720,000.

Its number of digital subscriptions surpassed those of print in 2012, and now account for 70% of the total.

There has been no comment made from the firm.