Lagardère announces Q1 2018 revenue

Paris-May 17, 2018

Lagardère announced results for First Quarter 2018 today. Highlights of the company’s financial performance are as follows:

At Hachette Book Group:
CEO Michael Pietsch said, “Our good first quarter results came from many places: #1 bestselling books by HBG house authors James Patterson, David Baldacci, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, and Brad Meltzer, from backlist hits like You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero, Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and from breakout bestsellers including Michael Isikoff & David Corn’s riveting Russian Roulette, Jennifer Palmieri’s powerful Dear Madam President, Peter Brown’s delightful The Wild Robot Escapes and Vashti Harrison’s inspiring Little Leaders.

“Since Q1’s end we’ve had the spectacular news that Andrew Sean Greer’s brilliant and joyful novel Less was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and that Attica Locke received the Edgar Award for Best Novel for Bluebird, Bluebird. Our biggest book of the year, James Patterson and President Bill Clinton’s thriller The President Is Missing, goes on sale next month, and is certain to be a major publishing event.”

HBG has had 63 New York Times bestsellers so far this year, including 15 #1 bestsellers. Looking ahead at the third quarter, we have exciting new books from Sally Field, Elin Hilderbrand, Sandra Brown, Joyce Meyer, Megan Abbott, Flea, Neil Patrick Harris, and Kate Atkinson, among many others. Recent acquisitions include books from Harlan Coben, Malala Yousafzai, Marie Kondo, Daniel Kahneman, and the team behind Dear Evan Hansen.

At Hachette Livre:
Hachette Livre delivered revenue of €442M, up .5% over first quarter 2017 on a consolidated basis and up 2.9% like-for-like; the difference between consolidated and like-for-like figures was due to negative (-€23M) foreign exchange effect associated with the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and pound sterling, as well as a positive (+€12M) scope effect due mainly to Hachette UK’s acquisitions of Brainbow, Bookouture, Summersdale, and Jessica Kingsley Publishing.

In France: Q1 2018 revenues were up 1.7%, due primarily to Larousse, Le Livre de Poche paperbacks, and Illustrated Books.

In the US: business in the U.S. “delivered solid growth (up 5.4%), lifted by the continued success of the backlist, especially Pete Souza’s Obama: An Intimate Portrait, and by a busy release schedule at Grand Central Publishing and Perseus,” according to Lagardère’s press release.
In the UK: good business momentum (+1.4%) was spurred by Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury at Little, Brown Book Group.
In Spain/Latin America: revenues were up 4.3% driven by Education in Spain.
Partworks: revenues rose 6.3%, with particularly strong sales in France and Italy.
Ebooks: accounted for 9.1% of total Lagardère Publishing revenue in Q1 2018, compared to 10% in Q1 2017.

At Lagardère:
The Lagardère group delivered 5% growth in revenue for first quarter 2018, “fueled by organic growth momentum at Lagardère Travel Retail and a good performance from Lagardère Publishing.” The company reported consolidated revenue of €1.555 billion in the first quarter, up 5.0% like-for-like and up 1.5% consolidated versus Q1 2017. The difference between consolidated and like-for-like sales reflects a negative (-€63M) foreign exchange effect due to depreciation of the US dollar, and a positive (+€10M) scope effect relating to acquisitions by Hachette UK.

Please read Lagardère’s press release for further details.

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