Chrysalis has announced plans to dispose of its loss making and none-core books division for £12.5 million, allowing the management to concentrate on the group’s core music radio and music businesses.
The company’s books business will be sold to a new company to be formed by Robin Wood, chief executive of Chrysalis Books and other senior managers of the publishing arm.
Chrysalis’s book publishing activities produced weaker than expected results in the company’s latest trading statement, reflecting ongoing trading difficulties across a number of areas of the book publishing division.
Earlier this summer, Chrysalis revealed a dramatic drop in its profits for the first half of the financial year, attributing the decline to falling audiences and a difficult period of trading in its books division (see Chrysalis Reveals Drop In First Half Profits).
The group showed turnover to have dropped to £78.4 million for the six months ended 28 February 2005, compared to the same period in 2004 which enjoyed turnover of £82.4 million.
The downward trend continued with total operating profit dropping to £1.7 million, from £82.4 million in 2004. Chrysalis put this decline down to increased losses at Chrysalis Books, as well as underperformance from its radio and magazines divisions.
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