Quarto Group Inc
05 May 2005
THE QUARTO GROUP, Inc
CHAIRMAN'S ANNUAL MEETING STATEMENT
At the Annual Meeting in London this afternoon of Quarto, the London-based and
listed international book publisher, the Chairman, Laurence F. Orbach, will
state:
'It is still early in the year, but we believe that we are on target to meet our
expectations for the year. For the first quarter, ended March 31, 2005,
unaudited sales were £17.0 million (2004: £14.6 million) and for the trailing
twelve months, were £82.3 million (2004: £74.9 million). These figures are in
line with our internal budgets.
'Following an eventful and successful 2004, we are now consolidating our new
businesses and, with the acquisition this year of Premier Books, are continuing
to deliver on our growth strategy. In order to improve the performance of our UK
publishing services business, we have decided to amalgamate our operations at
one manufacturing site, starting in June. We expect that this will return the
business to historic levels of performance. There will be a one time
restructuring charge of approximately £0.6 million.
'I am happy to report that Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. has joined, on a pari
passu basis, our revolving syndicated loan facility, so increasing our financial
base.
'I must take this opportunity to remind holders of Quarto's Convertible
Cumulative Redeemable Shares of Preferred Stock that June 1st is the final date
to convert into Quarto's Common Stock and, at this time, Quarto's share price
makes conversion, rather than redemption, a more attractive option. If all such
holders take up their conversion rights, this will result in the issue of
approximately 3.1m new equity shares, increasing the equity base by
approximately 16.6%.'
Notes for Editors:
Quarto is an international book publisher with two principal strands of
activity: it publishes, under imprints owned by the Group, books and art prints
in the US, the UK, and Australia; and it creates books that are licensed to
other publishers for publication under their own imprints in many languages
around the world.
2004 was Quarto's sixth successive year of increase in underlying EPS. Quarto
made three acquisitions in the second half of 2004 - in the USA, the UK, and
Australia - and another in April 2005 - in New Zealand.
Enquiries:
The Quarto Group, Inc. 020-7700 9000
Laurence Orbach (Chairman & CEO)
Mick Mousley (Finance Director)
Bankside Consultants Limited
Charles Ponsonby 020-7444 4166
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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