The Mondadori Group is the leading book and magazine publisher in Italy, with a market share of 27.6% (against 26.5% in 2011). The company's publishing houses include Edizioni Mondadori, Einaudi, Piemme, and Sperling & Kupfer. Its magazine titles include Panorama and Donna moderna.

Through Mondadori Education, the Group is also active in the Italian textbook market, while Mondadori Electa publishes art and illustrated books.

Employing a staff of 3,703, and generating revenues of 1.42 billion EUR in 2012, the Mondadori group is led by Marina Berlusconi. With 53.06%, Fininvest SpA is the largest shareholder.

Mondadori claims a market share of 26.5 % of the Italian book market, covering fiction and nonfiction in the Trade division, and text books as well as art and illustrated books in the Educational division.

The Direct and retail arm of Mondadori (whose results are not incorporated in this report) operates a network of 628 stores throughout Italy.

Mondadori was founded in 1907. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares have been listed on the Milan stock exchange since 1982.

Key Company Developments in 2012 & 2013

Financial:

Italy's difficult economic conditions led to plummeting sales in the book market (-7.8%), mainly as a result of reduced cover prices and a drop in the paperback segment.

Mondadori Group closed 2012 with revenues down by 6.0% and EBITDA down 49.0% against 2011.

The publishing segment reported a decline in EBITDA (60 million EUR against 67.8 million EUR) reflecting the downturn in revenues that fell from 389.1 million EUR to 370,6 million EUR in 2012. Among the imprints, Edizioni Mondadori was the only one to close fiscal year 2012 with a slight rise in revenues (+2.7% to 129.6 million EUR). Edizioni Piemme and Einaudi recorded the greatest losses, with 16% and 14.2% respectively.

Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization:

A week after Bertelsmann’s announcement to form a joint venture with Pearson, the German publishing group expanded its presence in the Spanish speaking markets by acquiring a 50% stake for 54.5 million EUR in Random House Mondadori that had been held by Mondadori. The imprints Plaza & Janés, Grijalbo, Lumen, Mondadori, and Sudamericana rank among the Barcelona-based publisher that will operate under a new name in the future.

Bertelsmann now owns 100% of shares in the Spanish and Latin American trade book publisher.

Maurizio Costa resigned at the end of February 2013. His successor, Ernesto Mauri, was appointed Deputy Chairman and CEO in March. Mauri has been chairman of Mondadori France since August 2008.

Digital:

In July 2012, Kobo entered the Italian book market by the help of a partnership with the Mondadori Group that will sell the Kobo Touch e-reader in 400 of its stores and online. The publisher will also make 4,000 of its titles available, among a total of 30,000 Italian e-books.

The total number of trade downloads in 2012 exceeded one million, with a 2% incidence on net revenues of print books.

Bestselling Authors & Titles:

Mondadori published 2,714 titles in 2012 of which 2,173 belongs to the in trades segment (against 2,168 in 2011), with 52 million copies produced (against 60.5 million in 2011). The foreign fiction business grew due to the success of E.L. James whose trilogy sold 3.3 million copies in Italy and 130,000 downloads in e-book format. Other strong selling authors were Ken Follett’s L’inverno del mondo with 300,000 copies sold and over 40,000 e-book downloads, Paolo Giordano’s second novel Il corpo umano sold 300,000 in print, and Il prigioniero del cielo by Carlos Ruiz Zafón selling 200,000 copies.

In the children category, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series is expected to exceed 300,000 copies 25,000 e-book at the end of 2013.

Earlier Developments:

2011:

Group revenues have been flat at Mondadori S.p.A. since 2009, after a significant drop in the crisis year of 2008, while revenues and profits from book publishing experienced a continuous downward slide. Profits for the book division were not released for 2011, but are defined as being flat against 2010.

With an overall 26% share in the Italian book market, 23.3% of Mondadori's revenue is from book sales and 15.7 % from Direct & Retail. The group's remaining revenue comes from magazines (26.53% in Italy, 19.4% in France); advertising (13 %); and other activities (data based on 2010).

The Direct & Retail division (whose results are not included in this report) currently includes over 600 stores across Italy, with a goal stated to further extend the branch network and increase brand recognition by opening additional stores, notably in small towns.

In 2011, Mondadori launched its own ebook distribution platform and released ca. 3000 e-books (after starting with 1200 e-books in 2010), with its corporate sales platform accounting for one quarter of all sales. The year-end holiday season saw a peek in up to 4000 downloads a day. Mondadori plans to digitize the entire cataloge of 15,000 titles by 2014. Meanwhile 90% of the education catalogue (1,300 titles) are already available in digital formats.

2010:

The Mondadori book division, headed by Gian Arturo Ferrari, claimed a market share of 27.1% in 2010 (28,1% in 2009) of the Italian book market and hence to be the “undisputed leader in the Italian book market.

Publishing brands include Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfer, Mondadori Education, releasing 2,379 new titles in 2010 (2,787 new titles in 2006), and selling 51.4 million copies in 2010 (56.4 million in 2006). Revenues at Mondadori were 132.9 million EUR in 2010 (2009: 140.7 million EUR); 48,8 million EUR for Einaudi (49.8 million EUR); and 46.6 million EUR for Piemme (43.9 million EUR).

Revenues of 279.7 million EUR in the Direct & Retail division have not been included in this ranking.

Best performing titles in 2010 included Canale Mussolini, by Antonio Pennacchi, winner of the 2010 Premio Strega (300,000 copies sold); and the Italian translation of Ken Follett’s Fall of the Giants (600,000 copies sold).

Mondadori’s international activities include Random House Mondadori, a joint venture with Bertelsmann, which is active in Spain and Latin America.

In October 2010, Mondadori launched its e-book catalogue with 1,200 in epub format (of which 400 were new titles, and 800 backlist).

2008:

Revenues from book publishing declined by 2.4% against 2007, while revenues declined group-wide by 7.1%. The Book Division had an EBITDA of 19.1% in 2008.

Trade (-1,2% in revenues) and education (-1,1% in revenues) were relatively stable, while Art & exhibition decreased by 16.6%. Only distribution showed an increase of 5.1%.

Books by Roberto Saviano and Khaled Hosseini drove the strong sales revenues.

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