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Belin and Presses Universitaires to merge as Humensis
Humensis is to be the name of the new French group which will be formed by the merger of educational and academic publishers Belin and Presses Universitaires de France (PUF) on 1st December.
The Humensis group, which will move into new premises in Paris next year, will have a combined payroll of 185 and should achieve annual sales of nearly €45 million this year. Belin sales could be as much as €35m this year and PUF sales are around the €10m mark. Reinsurer Scor, which is the major shareholder of both houses, will hold more than 80% of the capital of the new group.
Belin president Sylvie Marcé will be c.e.o. of the new company, and PUF managing director Frédéric Mériot will be c.o.o. Humensis will not publish under its name, and will keep the two major brands and those of Belin’s subsidiaries, Le Pommier, Pour La Science and Gérip. Instead the Humensis name will be used to promote the brands and organize events, Marcé told reporters in Paris this week. In addition to school and university textbooks, the aim is to publish books on academic subjects for the general public and to break into fiction.
A new digital department will be created to promote titles to “several million” potential customers, while continuing to focus on bookshops for distribution, Marcé said. Digital is no longer a separate structure, but is an integral part of the book production process, she added.
The merger will exploit synergies and complementary strengths, with the idea not to cut costs or lay off staff, to but to develop into new areas of activity as opportunities arise, Marcé said.
Both houses have reported losses in recent years. For Belin, this has been the case since 2013, but the company’s fortunes are picking up because of French school curriculum reform this year and next. PUF has been in the red for about a decade, but narrowed its operating loss from about €811,000 in 2015 to €190,000 in the 12 months to June 2016, and hopes are to break even this year, Mériot told The Bookseller.
