Planeta is the leading Spanish language publishing group in Spain and Latin America, with further strongholds in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis, the second largest publishing company in France. Planeta is continuing to expand, with an emphasis on reading groups, international partnerships, and digital, with the creation of e-book distribution platform Libranda and Nubico, a cloud-based reading platform with a flat rate.
Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalogue of 15,000 authors.
After successfully consolidating its acquisition of Editis in 2009, Planeta fully acquired Spain’s largest reading community, Circulo de lectores, from Bertelsmann’s Direct group in spring 2014. Circulo de lectores is second only to France loisir and has one million subscribers. Planeta previously acquired 50% of Circulo de lectores in 2010.
Aside from book publishing, the group has shares in the newspaper La Razón, and Grupo AtresMedia (formerly Grupo Antena 3), which includes the television channels Antena 3, Neox, Nova and Nitro, and the radio stations Onda Cero, Europa FM and Onda Melodía.
Fundación José Manuel Lara, the ownership's family foundation, is a main sponsor of cultural events and literary awards, notably El Premio Planeta.
Analysis & Key Developments
Financial
Grupo Planeta achieved revenue growth in a shrinking market that fell by around 4%. At the end of fiscal 2014 Planeta's turnover in its Publishing and Media and Training divisions had increased by 1,8% reaching 2.89 billion EUR. The Publishing Division recorded sales figures of 1.6 million EUR, against the previous year's figure of 1.57 million EUR.
With revenues of 663 million EUR, Planeta’s subsidiary Editis closed 2014 in line with the previous year’s result.
Internal organization
Grupo Planeta's President, José Manuel Lara Bosch, son of the company's founder José Manuel Lara Hernández, died in January 2015 in Barcelona at age 68 after a long illness. The group's Board of Shareholders opted to retain the same management team that headed the group's expansion and diversification with Bosch. José Creuheras, then Vice President, was appointed President; Carlos Fernández, former CEO, was appointed Executive Vice President; and José Manuel Lara García, then General Manager, was appointed new CEO. In addition, the Board of Shareholders of Grupo Atresmedia appointed José Creuheras President of Planeta.
Planeta's Education Division is growing fast, having purchased the online university VIU (Valencia International University) and reached an agreement with the University of Barcelona to launch an ambitious online university project called UNIBA (Barcelona International University Centre) for the Latin American market.
In 2014, Planeta’s French subsidiary Editis acquired French publisher Sonatine Edition, which helped Editis expands its presence in trade publishing. Sonatine Editions generates an average turnover of 10 million EUR and publishes 25 titles per year, primarily in thriller and suspense genres.
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