Lagardère looking to acquire English language publisher

Hachette's parent firm Lagardère has confirmed it is looking for an English language publisher to acquire "to increase its weight" in the market.

In the French firm’s annual report, filed on 2nd April, it said the acquisition had not yet been identified but the English language market was central to the future of its business.

The report stated: “As part of the strategy defined for the Group by Arnaud Lagardère, Lagardère Publishing plans to position itself for the potential acquisition of an English-language publisher – yet to be identified – to increase its weight in that linguistic market, where a large part of the economic future of global publishing is being played out.”

The report also noted Hachette UK’s strong performance in 2018, with revenue growth of 3.2%, up 3.4% on a consolidated basis though down 0.5% like-for-like.

Lagardère said it expected to “resume growth” in 2019, which would be an “Asterix year” and be boosted by curriculum reform in its home country.

It said: “Lagardère Publishing is set to embark on a new diversification programme, this time targeting board games, which are very popular and where the business model is very similar to that of book publishing. In January 2019, Hachette Livre announced the start of exclusive negotiations for the acquisition of Gigamic, which publishes and distributes board games for all audiences, and is enjoying strong and steady growth.”