QRT.L Regulatory News (QRT)

23 May 2008 12:33



Friday May 23, 2008

THE QUARTO GROUP, INC

Annual Meeting Statement

At the Annual Meeting in London this afternoon of Quarto, the fully-listed international specialist book publisher and producer based in London, Laurence F Orbach, Chairman & CEO, will state:

"There is not much to add to the Q1 Trading Statement released 4 weeks ago. The forward order book for international co-edition books, at the end of April, moved further ahead and is now 28% above last year; and overall group revenues increased by 19%, including the first-time contribution from MBI.

"In our publishing segment, UK trade sales were up by 14% and, in Australia and New Zealand, our display marketing businesses are performing comfortably ahead of last year. It is only in the US, where there is evidence of weakness in the buying patterns of some retail chains, that our register sales, excluding our home improvement titles, are uneven and only a little better than flat."

Notes for Editors:

Quarto is an international book publisher and producer with two principal strands of activity: it publishes, under imprints owned by the Group, books and art prints in the US, the UK, and Australia; and it creates books that are licensed to other publishers for publication under their own imprints in many languages around the world. Books are primarily non-fiction and illustrated, for enthusiasts and professionals.

In 2007, Quarto increased revenue by 7% to £100.1 million, adjusted pre-tax profit by 5% to £7.7 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share by 8% to 24.4p, proposing total dividends per share up 6% at 7.15p.

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