Lagardere’s book publishing units finished the year with a good fourth quarter (after another soft year overall): sales of €569 were up 4.2 percent overall from €546 a year ago, and up 6.7 percent on an underlying basis. The UK division, which has been lagging most of the year, finished with an “exceptional performance,” up 12.6 percent, and their big French unit also had notable gains in both general literature and distribution. For the full year, sales of €2.066 billion were up down slightly on an actual basis (from €2.077 billion), but up 1.0 percent on an underlying basis (primarily […]
Publishers
A Good Quarter for Harper
HarperCollins reported a good fiscal second quarter, ending December 31, 2013, with sales rising 4 percent $391 million and EBITDA gaining further, up by a third to $68 million (compared to sales of $377 million and EBITDA of $51 million a year ago). The company cited “the higher contribution to profits from ebooks and ongoing operational efficiencies coupled with higher revenues” for the strong earnings, with sales led by Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, and a good performance from their general books and children’s divisions. eBook sales were 39 percent higher than a year ago, but comprised 17 percent of all revenues, […]
Rowman & Littlefield Says Publishing Unit Has “Best Year” Ever; Sales Rise for Indigo But Earnings Drop Sharply
Rowman & Littlefield announced their 2013 results informally, saying that book and journal sales rose by $4.1 million (or more than 8 percent) to $51 million for the year, helped by their acquisition of Down East Books. Digital products comprised just under 10 percent of publishing sales. They launched an ebookstore within their web site last summer, selling “around 12,000 ebooks” directly. Their distribution companies NBN and NBNInternational had client sales of $79 million in the year. CEO Jed Lyons declared in the announcement: “2013 was our best year since we started the business in 1975.” This time a year […]
Pearson Earnings Lowered On “Tough” US Education Market and Higher Restructuring Costs
Pearson provided a market update in advance of their February 28 full-year earnings report, telling investors that adjusted earnings per share will be lower than previously expected. Gross earnings are in line with their previous expectations, but restructuring costs of £170 million were £20 million higher than forecast in October, and cost savings from those changes were £10 million lower than planned. They note that “additional restructuring activity including an added warehouse closure announced in late 2013.” Pearson’s shares were down roughly 8 percent in early trading on the disappointing news. Total gross operating profit for 2013 will be approximately […]
Publishing Flat, Printing Rises At Courier
Both sales and income rose at Courier in their fiscal first quarter, ending December 28, with revenues of $73 million (up 12 percent) and earnings of $2.6 million (up 9 percent). The company “reported strong sales growth in all three of its principal book manufacturing markets of education, religious and specialty trade.” Their publishing division was flat at $9.1 million, while the operating loss was cut in half to $600,000, “largely driven by improvements at Dover, which broke even in the quarter.”
Quercus Shares Fall By Half On Unexpected “Significant Loss”
Quercus said in an interim trading update that “sales in the final quarter were lower than expected” and the company now expects “a significant trading loss for the financial year.” The news was a particular surprise since their half-year results reported in September showed a profit of £0.52 million and the company said “we have one of our strongest-ever publishing programs in the second half of this year.” As a result, the publisher’s shares have fallen by almost 50 percent, down 25 pence to 28.5 pence a share. Quercus said it “is in constructive discussions, which are on-going, with its […]