QRT.L Regulatory News (QRT)

18 Dec 2006 07:02

Quarto Group Inc18 December 2006 Monday December 18, 2006 THE QUARTO GROUP, INC. US$50 million Debt Issue Quarto, the London-based and listed international book publisher, has sold US$50,000,000 (fifty million dollars) in 8-year floating rate notes to an investorgroup led by Pricoa (The Prudential Insurance Corporation of America). "This longer-term funding is an important development," noted Michael J Mousley,Quarto's Chief Financial Officer. "It supplements our syndicated $90 million5-year revolving credit facility, and our other bilateral arrangements, givingQuarto significant long-term funding, and a very secure basis upon which toimplement our plans for growth. In addition to providing shareholders withincreased comfort about Quarto's capital structure, it removes the need to haverecourse to the equity markets for any likely initiatives we may undertake. Weare now very well funded indeed." "We are very pleased with this transaction," said Jason Richardson, VicePresident, Pricoa Capital Group. "Quarto has an excellent management team and asolid business strategy. We look forward to a long-term relationship with theCompany." The transaction was arranged by Bank of America. Notes for Editors: Quarto is an international book producer and publisher with two principalstrands of activity: it publishes, under imprints owned by the Group, books andart prints in the US, the UK, and Australia; and it creates books that arelicensed to other publishers for publication under their own imprints in manylanguages around the world. In 2005, Quarto increased adjusted pre-tax profit by 12% to £6.6 million andreported adjusted diluted earnings per share of 20.8p (21.5p at constant taxrates, which would have represented a seventh successive annual increase).Quarto announced on October 20, 2006, in its Q3 Trading Update, that unauditedpre-tax profit for the trailing 12 months to September 30, 2006 increased by 18%to £6.8 million (2005: £5.8 million). Quarto's $90 million five-year revolving credit facility is provided by sixbanks - Allied Irish Bank, ANZ Bank, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB,and Royal Bank of Scotland. At June 30, 2006, net debt totalled £38.5 million(2005: £41.6 million). Enquiries: The Quarto Group, Inc. Laurence Orbach (Chairman & CEO) 020-7700 9003Mick Mousley (CFO) 020-7700 9004 Bankside Consultants Limited Charles Ponsonby 020-7367 8851 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange