Egmont to sell its US business

Egmont Publishing has announced plans to sell its US business.

The company, a division of Denmark-based Egmont Group, which incorporates Egmont UK and Egmont USA, said it is selling the American arm because of a new strategic focus.
 
Rob McMenemy, c.e.o. of Egmont Publishing, said, “Since 2009, and starting from scratch, Egmont USA has built a children’s fiction and young adult fiction list, and it has a strong plan for the future under the excellent leadership of m.d. and publisher Andrea Cascardi. The simple reason for selling the business is that it does not fit with the strategic position of Egmont Publishing only to invest in countries where we can have a market leading position.”

McMenemy said Egmont will from now on operate in countries where it is one of the top three children's publishers. Egmont USA is "tiny" and "we had no realistic proposition of changing that", he said.

The decision has no bearing on how Egmont conducts business in other regions. "What we do in other markets depends on what fits there. The UK is having a very good year and things are going well."

The US business is an attractive proposition for a children’s publisher looking for scale, or a publisher that wants to develop a children’s book business, he said.

Egmont has engaged Broadwater & Associates LLC, a New York-based investment banking firm, to handle the divestiture.