More Numbers from Lagardere

Yesterday Lagardere released their more detailed annual report, which also includes profits for fiscal 2008 (they released basic sales figures of 2.159 billion euros earlier, as we previously reported).

They company says EBIT for 2008 was 236 million euros, up 3.3 percent from a year ago, with operating margins up slightly to 11.4 percent. The US comprised 22 percent of sales in 2008, up from 18 percent a year ago, making it larger than Hachette UK for the first time, which saw its share of sales drop from 24 percent a year ago to 18 percent in 2008.

On that basis, and calculated at end of year exchange rates, that translates to US sales of roughly $640 million dollars. (Because of dramatic currency fluctuations during the year, this should be taken as an approximation only.)

The company updated their sales figures for Stephenie Meyer's astounding year, indicating that she sold 29.7 million copies in the US in 2008 (and another 2.3 million copies since then.)

Hachette UK sold another 3.7 million throughout their division, and Hachette in France sold 830,000 copies of her work in 2008. The US breakouts are 10.07 million copies for Twilight; 6.95 million copies for New Moon; 5.03 million copies for Eclipse; 1.46 million copies for The Host; and 6.23 million copies of Breaking Dawn.

Just to revise our recent rough guess, total Stephenie Meyer (pic left) sales for the year look like they were approximately $260 million, or about 9 percent of the company's annual revenues based on end-of-year exchange rates. Hachette "declines to break out individual authors' contribution to sales as a matter of policy," but "has indicated it disagrees with" our estimate.Among other tidbits in the report, the company says it is "seeking opportunities in major emerging markets (China, Russia)."

The above piece was sent to me by Margaret Samuels of Hachette NZ who had picked it up from Publishers Lunch. The Stephenie Myer phenomenon rolls on.