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HarperCollins has said its most recent financial year was "exceptionally difficult" after profits at the worldwide business collapsed from $160m to $17m.
Brian Murray, global c.e.o. of HarperCollins, described the year as "challenging". He said: "Obviously, external factors affected our performance. The general decline in the overall market, the decline in backlist reorders, the [US distributor] Anderson News bankruptcy, and on the international side we faced bad debt charges in the UK with the EUK bankruptcy. We have a good fall list and are looking forward to a new year."
As well as operating income slumping by 89.3%, publishing turnover also dropped significantly, down by 17.8% from $1.38bn to $1.14bn.
Describing the performance of the UK arm, Victoria Barnsley, c.e.o. and publisher of HarperCollins UK, blamed the global economic slump, last November's collapse of wholesaler Entertainment UK and Woolworths and an injection of resources into its pension fund following the stock market decline for the results.
In a statement, Barnsley said: "[It] was an exceptionally difficult year which saw a global economic slump, the collapse of EUK/Woolworths and more resources directed at our pension fund as a result of the stock market decline.
"In February, we restructured the company to better prepare for the future business environment. During this year, the book market declined by 3.5% which compares favourably with many other retail sectors. HarperCollins managed to buck that trend slightly at 3.4% down, outperforming all the other major publishers."
HarperCollins declined to discuss its operating income for the UK business. Barnsley identified as successes the performance of Cecelia Ahern's Thanks for the Memories and The Gift, Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt, Look Who It Is by Alan Carr, James Wong's Grow Your Own Drugs; Jade Goody's diary Forever in my Heart; Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Michael Bond's Paddington Rules the Waves.
She added that the education division's profit rose 15% year on year and the publisher had three of the six shortlisted books in the Samuel Johnson prize, including the winner Leviathan.
On a global level, publishing revenue and profit also fell in the most recent quarter. Turnover dropped from $350m to $278m, a fall of 20.5%. The publishing division made a loss of $1m in the three months to 30th June, down from an operating income of $28m in the same period last year.
HC's parent company NewsCorp posted a net loss of $3.4bn for the year, compared to a net income of $5.4bn in the 2008 financial period. In the fourth quarter, it posted a net loss of $203m, compared to income of $1.1bn in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the full year fell from $32.99bn to $30.42bn.