By Andrea Figueras
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore on Thursday raised its 2023 forecasts and said it has acquired a 51% stake in Star Shop Distribuzione in a deal that values the comic distributor as a whole at 9 million euros ($9.8 million), including debt.
The Italian publishing company said it expects an increase in net profit of around 20% compared with its previous expectation of a 10% rise. In 2022, the group achieved a profit of EUR52.1 million.
Mondadori attributed the guidance raise to a more favorable evolution of the business and the main production prices than expected as well as to the effects of the sale of its investment in newspaper Il Giornale.
The company said adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are estimated to rise between a high single-digit and low double-digit percentage, against its previous forecast of single-digit growth.
The acquisition of a 51% stake in Star Shop Distribuzione, which made a net profit of EUR1.2 million on revenue of EUR34.2 million last year, will be paid in cash, the company said. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval, it said.
Mondadori said the agreement includes an option for the remaining 49% at a price to be defined based on the company’s results during the three-year periods 2023-25 and 2026-28.
Write to Andrea Figueras at [email protected]
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