18th Apr 2006 11:34
Reed Elsevier PLC18 April 2006 NEWS RELEASE 18 April 2006 Annual General Meetings of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV Chairman's Statement Issued on behalf of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV Jan Hommen, Chairman of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV, toldshareholders at the Reed Elsevier PLC meeting in London today: "We were pleased to report on a year of overall good progress at Reed Elsevierin 2005. Three of our four divisions performed well and delivered on or exceededtheir individual targets for organic revenue growth. The Education division,whilst performing well in the core curriculum textbook programmes,underperformed in the supplemental and testing markets. Firm action has beentaken to address the product, marketing and organisational issues in thesebusinesses. Overall, Reed Elsevier's revenue growth has accelerated, underlyingoperating margins have improved, cash generation is strong, and good and growingreturns on capital are being delivered." Looking at the trading performance in 2006, Mr Hommen commented: "Overall, trading conditions have changed little since our 2005 PreliminaryResults announcement on 16 February. The performance so far this year is in linewith our expectations and we continue to target underlying revenue growth of atleast 5% and double digit growth in adjusted earnings per share at constantcurrencies. The individual divisional growth targets announced in February areunchanged. The performance trends in Reed Elsevier's businesses are as follows: Elsevier has made a positive start to the year. In the Science & Technologydivision both journal subscription renewals and online sales are progressingwell. The Health Sciences business is again expecting good growth from new bookpublishing and strong backlist sales, although given the seasonality of thebusiness, this will be mostly seen in the second half. LexisNexis has started the year well, continuing the strong revenue momentumseen in 2005. In US legal markets good demand continues for online informationand workflow tools as total practice solutions gain further market traction. InUS corporate and federal markets, the risk management business continues to growstrongly. International growth outside the US is benefiting from strong demandfor online legal and news and business services. Harcourt Education has started the year with an encouraging market response toits 2006 basal textbook programmes, against a background of lower overalladoption opportunities this year. The actions taken in the supplemental andassessment businesses are progressing as planned and, as previously stated, areexpected to have a positive impact this year on revenue growth, whilst the majoreffect will be in 2007. Recent state testing contract awards are encouraging.The majority of textbook sales for both the basal and supplemental businessesare in the second half, reflecting the seasonality of the business around thestart of the academic year. Reed Business has had a good start to the year. The overall performance in themagazine and information publishing businesses continues to vary somewhat bygeography and sector with strong online revenue momentum the key driver ofoverall growth. Exhibition demand is strong with good success in the early 2006shows. Over the last four years, we have made enormous strides in developing thebusiness in terms of its quality, market and customer focus, innovation andinvestment, and management and organisational effectiveness. The drive intoonline products and services is delivering stronger, higher quality customerrelationships and growth. Our increasing focus going forward is to ensure thatwe deliver the operational leverage that superior growth in a digitalenvironment should promise, and to maximise the returns on capital." The Annual General Meeting of Reed Elsevier NV, the co-parent of Reed ElsevierGroup plc, will be held in Amsterdam tomorrow and Mr Hommen, also Chairman ofReed Elsevier NV, will make the same comments to that meeting. This statement contains forward looking statements within the meaning of Section27A of the Securities Act 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the SecuritiesExchange Act 1934, as amended. These statements are subject to a number of risksand uncertainties and actual results and events could differ materially fromthose currently being anticipated as reflected in such forward lookingstatements. The terms 'expect', 'should be', 'will be', and similar expressionsidentify forward looking statements. Factors which may cause future outcomes todiffer from those foreseen in forward looking statements include, but are notlimited to: general economic conditions and business conditions in ReedElsevier's markets; exchange rate fluctuations; customers' acceptance of itsproducts and services; the actions of competitors; legislative, fiscal andregulatory developments; changes in law and legal interpretation affecting ReedElsevier's intellectual property rights and internet communications; and theimpact of technological change. For media enquiries contact:Catherine May, Reed Elsevier, tel +44 (0)20 7166 5657 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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