Bertelsmann reported sales for 2019 on Tuesday, with Penguin Random House showing gains in sales and profits, primarily from the stronger US dollar and a continuing string of acquisitions, plus decent “organic growth” of 1.5 percent. Topline sales of €3.636 billion were up €212 million from 2018, rising 6.2 percent. Operating EBITDA of €561 million was also up 6.2 percent, or €33 million, compared to €528 million a year ago — though here the result was lifted by an accounting change regarding lease expenses that looks to have provided a one-time boost on the order of €28 million. (Per our […]
Earnings Reports
Pearson Pauses Share Buyback, Citing “Prolonged Uncertainty”
Pearson “has decided it is prudent” to pause the rest of their planned £350 million share buyback, the company announced March 23. That repurchase program, under which they have already spent £167 million, was initiated in January as part of a plan to reinvest some of the expected proceeds from selling their remaining stake in Penguin Random House to Bertelsmann. (The sale is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020). Pearson estimated that the temporary closing of their Pearson VUE test centres will reduce operating profit by approximately £25 million to £35 million, and cancellations of state tests […]
Corporate: Scholastic Closes DCs in Cost Cutting, Bloomsbury Acquires Zed, and More
Scholastic reported results for the third quarter ending February 29, and announced cost and service cuts due to the pandemic: “We are taking aggressive actions to reduce operating expenses throughout the company, including the temporary closing of warehousing and distribution centers, and a freeze on hiring, travel and other discretionary spending not directly tied to short-term revenue, while working hard to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff worldwide,” ceo Richard Robinson said in the release. Overall sales for the quarter were $373 million, up $13 million compared to a year ago. Trade sales were even stronger — at […]
International: Bloomsbury Performance “In Line with Expectations,” Some Orders from China Resume, and More
Bloomsbury offered a brief trading update, in advance of their full annual results May 20. Performance for the fiscal year ended February 29 is “in line with the Board’s expectations,” and “Bloomsbury’s financial position is strong with net cash of £31 million at 29 February 2020,” even after having paid £1.2 million for the acquisition of Oberon Books this past December. The release says: “It is unclear how coronavirus will affect our numbers as it is early in the new financial year. There is disruption to bookshops, online retailers and academic institutions, whilst on the other hand, reading books, including […]
Books Continue to Decline as Percentage of Sales at Hudson
The Hudson Group, the travel retailer and bookstore owned by parent company Dufry, released Q4 and full-year 2019 earnings as part of their 2019 annual report last week. Unlike last year’s annual report, real figures for book sales (or rather, “literature and publications”) weren’t included. However, literature and publications represented 7.8 percent of total net sales, down from 8.9 percent last year, 10 percent in 2017, and 12 percent in 2016. Working backwards from annual net sales for 2019 of $1.91 billion (an increase of $30.1 million from last year), that suggests literature and publications sales of approximately $150.1 million, […]
China Literature’s Annual Results Show Double-Digit Growth
China Literature, China’s largest online publishing and ebook platform, reported results for the year ended December 31, 2019. Sales for the company were RMB8.348 billion ($1.197 billion) in 2019, a 65.7 percent increase over the prior year. Operating profit was RMB1.194 billion ($171.1 million), a 7.1 percent increase. More than half those sales, however, $634 million in all, were from IP operations, which were mostly earned by New Classics Media (NCM), the major Chinese TV and film production studio the company acquired in October 2018 to create downstream opportunities from its content library. Sales from IP operations increased 341 percent year-over-year. […]