Canadian distributor HB Fenn confirmed its February 3 bankruptcy announcement in a statement of affairs filed with the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. In it Fenn lists $25 million (CA) in liabilities against $14.8 million in assets. Fenn owes $21.8 million to unsecured creditors, with Macmillan the largest by far (owed $10 million, with an additional $600,000 owed to its UK arm.) Other notable unsecured creditors, according to Quill & Quire, include four H.B. Fenn-affiliated companies comprising Fenn Publishing, Fenn Technologies, and two numbered corporations bearing H.B. Fenn’s Bolton address who together are owed $4.1 million, HarperCollins ($3.3 million, […]
Finance
McEvoy Adds to Group with Princeton Architectural Press Purchase
Founder and owner of New York-based Princeton Architectural Press Kevin Lippert has sold the company to Nion McEvoy’s The McEvoy Group as of January 1, announced today. Lippert is staying on as president and publisher. Chronicle has been the publisher’s distributor since 1995, and will operate the press “as a stand-alone operation.” McEvoy Group president Jack Jensen says “we look forward to helping Princeton consolidate its position as one of the preeminent publishers of books on architecture and design in the world, and to expand its offerings in both academic and electronic publishing. Lippert had repurchased shares in the publisher […]
When Will Borders File For Bankruptcy? As Early As Today, Or Later This Week
The WSJ reported Friday afternoon that Borders “could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday or Tuesday,” but also cautioned “the filing could be delayed a few days.” Whenever the bankruptcy filing takes place, it will trigger the imminent liquidation and closure on a significant portion of their store base–now predicted to cover 200 of the company’s superstores (with an option to close 50 more) and all of its smaller mall-based outlets, among other restructuring efforts. If it comes before the end of this month, vendors who received checks at the end of November may have to […]
Sales Grow But Indigo Profits Still Drop in Third Quarter
Third-quarter performance at Canada’s retailing giant Indigo looks reminiscent of Barnes & Noble’s trajectory, with ebooks, ereaders and online sales helping to lift sales while also weighing on expenses. Indigo’s revenues rose 14 percent to $387.6 million (CA), beating projections, but net profit of $30.2 million (or C$1.19 a share) was $4 million lower than a year ago, which was less than analysts expected. Superstore comps increased 2.6 per cent while smaller-store comps dropped 0.8 percent from last year’s levels, and the company’s online division was up 6.5 percent from a year ago. As with the previous quarter, digital investments […]
The Potential Costs of Borders’ Unpaid Bills
With Wiley’s $9 million writedown last Friday of money owed to them by Borders that they do not expect to collect, it’s clear that the bookseller’s troubles are going to hit balance sheets even before the possibility of hitting bankruptcy court. Most of the coverage since we first reported in late December that Borders was not paying major creditors has focused on the largest publishing companies, but with a second month of non-payment we wanted to look at how the impact of Borders current inability to pay their bills might be felt across a much wider group of publishers. Since […]
What Do We Know About Publishing Bankruptcies?
With expectations of possible Borders bankruptcy filing mounting, and corporate writedowns already beginning even without a filing as we noted on Friday with respect to Wiley, we’ve been looking at past bankruptcies to provide some sense of expectations, scope and scale. The closest US publishing-related bankruptcy comp in recent memory is probably the late 2006 collapse by AMS (Advanced Marketing Services). When they filed, the company owed the 40 largest publisher creditors alone $220 million, including $43.3 million to Random House. (The debtor list did also include publishers they distributed via PGW.) AMS also held $70 million worth of books […]