Mondadori operates five trade publishing houses: Edizioni Mondadori, Giulio Einaudi editore, Edizioni Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer (which includes the Frassinelli brand), and Rizolli Libri.

Through Mondadori Education and Rizzoli Education the group is also active in the Italian school textbook market with a share of 24%, while Mondadori Electa publishes art and illustrated books and provides museums with management services for exhibitions and cultural events.

Mondadori leads the overall Italian publishing market with a 26.5% share in trade and education combined.

Results from the direct sales and retail division are not incorporated in this report. Mondadori operates a network of 628 stores throughout Italy.

Mondadori was founded in 1907. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares are listed on the Milan stock exchange.

Mondadori announced a plan to acquire RCS Libri in fall 2015. The deal was approved by Italy’s Competition Authorities in early 2016. Many Italian authors criticized the move, arguing that the new combined publishing activities would account for 40% of the book business in Italy.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

The Mondadori Group reported stable net revenues of 1.3 billion EUR for 2016, up 12.4% compared to 2015. Furthermore, the company’s EBITDA rose by 15.3% to 94 million EUR during 2016.

The company’s report included nine months of consolidated revenues achieved by Rizzoli Libri starting with April 2016.

The Mondadori book division reported a revenues of 475 million EUR for 2016, up from 321 million EUR in 2015. Books represented 36% of the company’s total revenues, with 169 million EUR from Rizzoli alone.

Internal Organization

The Mondadori Group announced the conclusion of an agreement on the disposal of the business units involved in the logistics activities of Mondadori Libri and Mondadori Retail to CEVA Logistics Italia. The agreement marks a further step in the plan to focus on core businesses.

Divestment

In July 2016 Mondadori announced the completed disposal of its 94.7% interest in the share capital of Marsilio Editori to GEM, as part of the deal to acquire Rizzoli’s book publishing assets.

In December 2016 Mondadori sold the publishing house Bompiani, again based on the agreement from the Rizzoli deal, to Giunti Editore S.p.A.

International

In 2016 the Mondadori Group’s revenue shares by region were 895 million EUR from Italy, 315 million EUR from France, 226 million EUR from the rest of the EU, and 32 million EUR from outside Europe.

Digital

The e-book share of Mondadori’s trade revenues accounted for 5.7% in 2016. The company achieved 2 million downloads from a catalogue of over 11,600 titles. Due to the acquisition of Rizzoli Libri, Mondadori’s digital book sales increased by over 15% to 1.7 million EUR in 2016. Highlights in bestselling e-book titles included: La ragazza del treno by Paula Hawkins, Io prima di te and Io dopo di te by Jojo Moyes, and È tutta vita by Fabio Volo.

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