Lagardere Publishing Reports 8.6% Increase Driven by Hachette

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February 14 – February 21, 2008 Edition

Lagardere Publishing

Reports 8.6% Increase

Driven by Hachette

PARIS/2/8/08–Worldwide revenues at Lagardere Publishing (formerly the Book division) grew 8.6% in 2007, to 2.13 billion euros ($2.77 billion), Lagardere SCA reported February 7. The company reported an excellent quarter in virtually all the countries in which they operate. Sales were particularly robust in the United Kingdom, driven by a raft of successful fiction and non-fiction titles, and continued strong growth in the United States since January 2007. In France, Literature and Illustrated Books both ended the year strongly.

An 80 million euro contribution from the former Time Warner Trade Book Group, acquired by Lagardere in April 2006, also contributed to growth. Hachette Book Group USA, which replaced Time Warner Trade as the publishing unit at Largardere, accounted for 4.7% of the total publishing performance.

In the United Kingdom, the year ended with a surge in sales. The group published 7 of the top 10 Christmas nonfiction best-sellers (including Bobby Charlton, Russell Brand and Al Murray), and 5 of the top 10 fiction titles (including Martina Cole and Patricia Cornwell).

In the United States, the strong growth seen since the start of the year continued, driven by bestsellers (including Patterson, Baldacci, Hitchens and Meyer) and healthy backlist sales.

In France, the fourth quarter was boosted by a fine contribution from Literature, thanks to authors such as Simone Veil and Philippe Claudel. Illustrated Books also enjoyed solid year-end sales.

In Spain, sales are traditionally sluggish in the final quarter. Over 2007 as a whole, Spain recorded further strong growth not only in Education, but also in General Publishing and Children’s Books.

Finally, Part-Works ended the year well, with steady sales growth in Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Hachette has experienced strong sales by such bestselling authors as James Patterson, David Baldacci, Stephenie Meyer, and Christopher Hitchens. The Publishing unit also had strong backlist sales, especially in the UK.

Excluding changes in Group structure and the effects of exchange rates, company-wide consolidated revenues rose by 3.3% in 2007 to €8,582m. On a constant structure basis but without adjusting for the effects of exchange rates, the increase was 2.2%. Largardere will report full 2007 results in early March.