You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
John Wiley & Sons has reported a 4% year-on-year revenue rise at constant currency for the first quarter of the 2015 fiscal year (to $438m), driven by a 12% rise in its Education business (up 12% to a total of $90.7m) and aided by the contribution from recent acquisitions in its Professional Development division ($9.6m).
On a continuing basis, without the addition of acquisitions, revenue was up 1.5% at constant currency.
The publisher reaffirmed its fiscal year outlook of mid-single-digit revenue growth.
President and c.e.o. Steve Smith said: "Wiley's revenue growth in this quarter was fuelled by double-digit growth rates across most of our Education portfolio, as well as contributions from our newly acquired Talent Solutions businesses. In addition, our journal revenues continued to grow at low-single-digit rates, supported by growth in subscription and author funded access."
However Smith also cautioned that the Education figures were partly due to earlier ordering patterns at US bookstores, saying: "We do not expect this pace of growth to continue through this school year."
Meanwhile in Education Services (Deltak), Wiley revealed that it now has 36 university partners (up from 33) and that as the quarter closed, it had signed its first UK university partnership, with an as-yet-undisclosed institution. Smith said he expected "further partnerships in the UK and across EMEA", saying: "We do see opportunity for international expansion." Wiley investor relations director Brian Campbell told The Bookseller: "Obviously we have a large presence in the UK, and relationships – and the biggest part of this business is references and reputation. To get one institution opens up a whole possibility here. Meanwhile the Middle East has a big push on online education, so it's another hotspot for us."
In Wiley's Professional Development business, revenue grew 9% (to $92.3m) due to revenue from recent acquisitions (CrossKnowledge and Profiles International), but excluding the acquisitions, was down 3% year on year, with book sales declining by 3%. However there was growth in its post-hire assessment business (up 16%) and online test preparation (up 4%) and there were "significant improvements" to the division's profitability due to restructuring. In its Research business, revenue was flat at $254.9m. However within that, books were down 8% both in print and digital. Smith said this was due to fluctuations in institutional sales, with the decline expected "to trend closer to flat" for the full year.
Wiley also said it had gained "significant cost reduction" efficiencies by consolidating some decentralised business functions, including content management, vendor procurement services and marketing services.
Campbell declined to disclose any employment figures for the business in terms of numbers of jobs lost through its recent restructuring or gained via acquisition, saying only that job cuts had been "spread pretty evenly across the companies".
Net debt grew to $532m in the quarter, including severance payments related to restructuring. Wiley said it had invested $223m on acquisitions in the past 12 months.