Orion Publishing Group Joins Hachette Livre; Veronis, Suhler Represents Orion, One of UK's Leading Consumer Book Publishers, In Sale of Equity Stake

Business Wire, August 24, 1998

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1998--Veronis, Suhler & Associates reports that it has represented The Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Great Britain's largest privately held consumer book publisher, in the sale of a majority equity interest to Hachette Livre S.A. Hachette Livre is the largest book publisher in France, with a 20% market share.

Hachette announced that it is acquiring the equity stakes of Orion's three venture capital investors, DLJ Phoenix, Candover Partners Limited and Baring Communications Equity Limited. Orion's three original founding partners - Anthony Cheetham, Peter Roche and Rosemary Cheetham - each retain a substantial equity stake, along with the 50 managers and staff who hold shares or options. Hachette gains 70% of the total equity, while Orion management retains a 30% stake.

The transaction, which was initiated by Veronis, Suhler, allows the Orion Group to accelerate its growth in the UK and establish a prominent presence in the US and other English-language markets. Jean-Louis Lisimachio, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre, becomes Chairman of The Orion Publishing Group, while Orion's senior management team, headed by co-founders Anthony Cheetham (Chief Executive and Publisher) and Peter Roche (Managing Director), remains unchanged.

Founded in 1991, Orion has enjoyed strong growth, with an annual revenue growth rate of 33% per annum and a compound growth in annual profits of 55%. Included in this is the company's 1992 acquisition of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which specializes in literary titles and whose authors include Antonia Fraser, Edna O'Brien, Paul Johnson and Alan Clark. Weidenfeld also maintains a fiction imprint, Phoenix House, which published three of the most successful British novels of the 1990s -- A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth), Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder) and The Reader (Bernhard Schlink). The company's Orion imprint is known for more popular titles, with such strong-selling British authors as Maeve Binchy, Penny Vincenzi, Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly.

"This transaction satisfied several agendas," explained Robert Broadwater, the Veronis, Suhler managing director who represented Orion. "Orion needed to provide a strong exit mechanism for its venture capital investors, while aligning with a new partner that would complement the company's prominence in the British publishing market, and at the same time support its plans to expand outside the UK. We are especially pleased to have secured maximum value for Orion shareholders while keeping the publishing and operational integrity of the company intact."

Established in 1981, Veronis, Suhler has completed over 400 media industry transactions with an aggregate value of over $20 billion, including more than $500 million in book publishing. The firm has worked with all major segments of the industry, including adult and juvenile trade, scientific, technical and medical, professional, legal and educational. Veronis, Suhler specializes in mergers/acquisitions, private placements, joint ventures, and management buyout financings.

    CONTACT:  Allan Ripp, 212/721-7468
                        or
               Russ Raman for Veronis, Suhler, 212/935-4990