Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced this morning that it is moving forward with an Initial Public Offering through which it could raise up to $292 million. Proceeds from the sale will not go to the company, however, but to stockholders, who, under HMH’s reorganization plan, had the right to have the publisher go public.
The new prospectus also had updated financial results for the company with total sales for the nine month period ended September 30, 2013 up 7%, to $1.08 billion and its net loss cut to $46.5 million from $52.9 million. In the trade division, nine-month sales rose 18.9%, to $124.6 million. The increase, the company said, was due to the purchase of the Wiley cookbook line plus an increase in sales of “general interest and young readers products.” Operating profit for the group rose to $7.1 million from $2.2 million.
