US$50 million debt issue

Quarto Group Inc
18 December 2006


 

 

Monday December 18, 2006

 

                             THE QUARTO GROUP, INC.                             

 

                            US$50 million Debt Issue                            

 

Quarto, the London-based and listed international book publisher, has sold US
$50,000,000 (fifty million dollars) in 8-year floating rate notes to an investor
group led by Pricoa (The Prudential Insurance Corporation of America).

 

'This longer-term funding is an important development,' noted Michael J Mousley,
Quarto's Chief Financial Officer. 'It supplements our syndicated $90 million
5-year revolving credit facility, and our other bilateral arrangements, giving
Quarto significant long-term funding, and a very secure basis upon which to
implement our plans for growth. In addition to providing shareholders with
increased comfort about Quarto's capital structure, it removes the need to have
recourse to the equity markets for any likely initiatives we may undertake. We
are now very well funded indeed.'

 

'We are very pleased with this transaction,' said Jason Richardson, Vice
President, Pricoa Capital Group. 'Quarto has an excellent management team and a
solid business strategy. We look forward to a long-term relationship with the
Company.'

 

The transaction was arranged by Bank of America.

 

Notes for Editors:

 

Quarto is an international book producer and 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.

 

In 2005, Quarto increased adjusted pre-tax profit by 12% to £6.6 million and
reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of 20.8p (21.5p at constant tax
rates, which would have represented a seventh successive annual increase).
Quarto announced on October 20, 2006, in its Q3 Trading Update, that unaudited
pre-tax profit for the trailing 12 months to September 30, 2006 increased by 18%
to £6.8 million (2005: £5.8 million).

 

Quarto's $90 million five-year revolving credit facility is provided by six
banks - Allied Irish Bank, ANZ Bank, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB,
and Royal Bank of Scotland. At June 30, 2006, net debt totalled £38.5 million
(2005: £41.6 million).

 

 
Enquiries:                                                            
                                                                      
The Quarto Group, Inc.                                                
Laurence Orbach (Chairman & CEO)                         020-7700 9003
Mick Mousley (CFO)                                       020-7700 9004
                                                                      
Bankside Consultants Limited                                          
Charles Ponsonby                                         020-7367 8851

 

 



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