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Harcourt Posts Healthy Gains In Sales and Earnings
-- 1/3/00

Total revenues at Harcourt General's publishing and educational services business rose 15.1% for the year ended October 31, 1999, to $2.14 billion. Operating earnings jumped 30.3% to $279.6 million, while net income increased 29.8% to $183.8 million.

The largest sales gain was in Harcourt's Worldwide STM group, in which the 32% improvement to $697.6 million was led by the integration of Mosby plus a strong year from Academic Press. The two school publishing units both posted sales gains of 3.2%. Revenue gains in the k-12 group to $581.5 million were paced by strong sales of social studies, math and health programs. The higher education group, in which sales hit $366 million, was led by gains in its college publishing division as well as its distance learning operations.

Brian Knez, co-CEO, said Harcourt was pleased with results in fiscal 1999, noting that the company was able to increase earnings while continuing to invest in new initiatives. Among the areas to which Harcourt has devoted considerable resources are technology-based assessment and training and distance education.

International Appointments
In an effort to increase the sales of its STM group, Harcourt has made a number of appointments in its international operations. Jose Wehnes has been appointed president of the international group and will be based in London. He was formerly managing director of Richmond Publishing, a division of the Santillana Publishing Group.

Nick White, formerly CFO for the Asia Pacific region for International Thomson, has been named v-p, operations, while Mary Ging has been promoted to president of the European division. She had been Harcourt's v-p, sales and marketing, for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Both White and Ging will be based in London.

Other new appointments include Stephen Troth, who has been named president of the Asian division. Formerly with Simon & Schuster, Troth will be based in Singapore. Joaoa Madureira, who was most recently with Pearson Education, has been appointed president of Harcourt's Latin American division. He will be located in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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