Lagardère announces 2017 full-year revenue and profit

Paris-March 8, 2018

Last month, Lagardère announced their fourth quarter sales and their full year revenue for 2017. Today, they followed up with an announcement of their full year 2017 results, a more detailed report that includes operating profit. Highlights are as follows:

At Hachette Book Group:
CEO Michael Pietsch said, “We published some of the bestselling writers in the industry in 2017—James Patterson, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Rick Steves, and Sandra Brown, among many others—and were thrilled with phenomenal sales for Pete Souza’s OBAMA: An Intimate Portrait, which maintains its strong trajectory in 2018. Superb publishing across our imprints delivered bestsellers and prizes, and we made exciting acquisitions all year long. This positive trend continues with Grand Central Publishing’s announcement today that they have acquired five new novels by #1 bestselling author Harlan Coben, a writer we have deeply admired for years, and a thrilling addition to Hachette Book Group’s roster of bestselling authors.”

In 2017, HBG had 167 books on the New York Times bestsellers list, including 34 #1 titles. We also had 144 books hit the USA Today list, 10 of which were #1 bestsellers.

Highlights for 2018 include Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s thriller The President is Missing in June, a memoir from legendary actress Sally Field, In Pieces, in September, and Every Breath, Nicholas Sparks’s first novel in two years, coming in October. And Alexis Okeowo’s debut book A Moonless, Starless Sky recently won the PEN/Open Book Award.

At Hachette Livre:
Hachette Livre delivered revenue of €2.289B in 2017, up 1.9% like-for-like over 2016 (up 1.1 % on a consolidated basis). The difference between these two figures reflects a €50M negative foreign exchange effect and a €33M positive scope effect resulting from the consolidation of Perseus, and the acquisitions of Brainbow and Bookouture for Hachette UK.

The Publishing Division’s EBIT of €210 million (9.2% margin) is an increase of €2 million over 2016. The increase was “mainly attributable to a strong performance in the United States, underpinned by successful releases as well as continued profitability gains as a result of the ongoing cost-cutting plan,” according to Lagardère’s press release.

• In France: 2017 revenues were up 3.4%, driven by Astérix et la Transitalique, Dan Brown’s Origin, a record year at Le Livre de Poche paperbacks, and by textbook publishing.
• In the US: HBG’s revenues were up 2.7% on the prior year, “lifted by a busy release schedule, especially at Perseus and Nashville,” according to the company’s release.
• In the UK: revenue fell 3.9% due to the comparison with strong sales for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2016.
• In Spain/Latin America: revenues declined 5.2% on prior year due to Spain’s curricular reform in 2016.
• Partworks: revenue grew 8.8%, with particularly strong sales in Argentina and Japan.
• Ebooks: accounted for 7.9% of total Lagardère Publishing revenue in in 2017, compared to 8.0% in 2016.

 At Lagardère:

Lagardère delivered revenues of €7.069 billion in 2017, up 4.0% like for like. The company reported profit of €403 million, an increase of €8 million over prior year.

Please read Lagardère’s press release for more information, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions about today’s announcement.