The Publishing Horizon

Spanish book publisher Grupo Planeta acquires French book publisher Editis

In May 2008, the largest Spanish book publisher Grupo Planeta (GP) acquired Editis, the second biggest French book publisher from Wendel Investissements, a French private equity firm, for EUR 1.026 billion. Barcelona-based Grupo Planeta, founded in 1949, with subsidiaries in Colombia and Mexico now has a made its first foray into publishing in a language other than Spanish. There're very few reports or analysis in the English language media (that I could find online) of this mega deal in the book publishing sector, which is likely a harbinger of deals to come. Here's what I've been able to gather on the deal.

• Some background on the Acquirer as described on Grupo Planeta's website,

  GP is the leading Spanish communication group with wholly family-owned capital and a producer of cultural, news, educational and entertainment contents for the Spanish-speaking market. It is the foremost publishing group in Spain and Latin America and is a reference shareholder of Spanish mass media including television, radio, press and the Internet. Founded in Barcelona in 1949 following the creation of Editorial Planeta and the promotion of direct sales of major encyclopaedic works, Grupo Planeta quickly became consolidated as a prestige brand with a capacity for combining tradition and a forward-looking approach. In 1966 it opened its first subsidiaries in Colombia and Mexico, marking what would be a constant part of its activity: an uninterrupted presence in Latin America. Today, Grupo Planeta boasts over 40 publishing labels that publish works by over 5,000 authors including the most outstanding writers of classical and contemporary literature. It is also leader in the commercialisation of major encyclopaedic works and in sales by instalments.

  and the Target as described on Editis' web site,

  With 2600 employees and about 44 publishing imprints, Editis holds leading positions in three segments of the publishing business, in particular Literature (trade and mass market formats), Education (scholarly, scholastic aids, middle school, high school, university, legal and medical), and Reference (dictionaries and encyclopedias), as well as in the field of publishing services (promotion and distribution). Prestigious publishers and efficient group-wide services have made Editis number two in the world of French publishing and a major player in Europe.

  20 December 2002: Vivendi Universal Publishing (VUP) sold its publishing business (including Editis) to the Lagardère group, subject to authorization by the European Commission.
  7 January 2004: The European Commission authorized Lagardère to retain ownership of part of the VUP's publishing assets, representing some 40% of Editis' total sales. Lagardère decided to keep the publishing firms Larousse, Dalloz, Dunod, Armand Colin, Sedes, Nathan-Université, Anaya group (Spanish) and the Ivry-Rigaud distribution center. The remaining 60% of VUP's publishing assets were put back on the market. Taking the name Editis, this group refocused its activity on publishing for the French-speaking world.
  30 September 2004: WENDEL Investissement announced that it had acquired Editis from Lagardère SCA for € 660 million.

  [Lagardère's agreement to buy VUP's publishing business] attracted criticism from competitors and government agencies (e.g. comments that Lagardere would have over 50% of France's paperback sales, 80% of textbook sales and 69% of book distribution), reflected in the decision by the European Commission's competition unit that Lagardere should relinquish much of the acquisition. (Source: Ketupa)

• The details of the deal as described by Calcyon, Grupo Planeta's investment banker

  With a value of EUR 1,026 million, it is the largest acquisition ever made in France by a foreign media group and one of the largest media mergers & acquisition deal in Europe in 2008. Editis is the second largest French book publisher next to Hachette and the leader in its domestic market. With prestigious publishing brands such as Nathan, Bordas, Le Robert, Plon, Perrin and Robert Laffont, it generated sales of EUR 760 million and operating profit of EUR 93 million in 2007. Through this acquisition, Planeta becomes one of the leading European publishers of textbooks and literature and reaffirms its international ambitions.

  With the integration of Editis, Grupo Planeta will generate revenues of EUR 3.2 billion of which EUR 1.7 billion in publishing.

  Calyon is financial advisor to Grupo Planeta for the EUR 1 billion acquisition of Editis and bookrunner and coordinator of the acquisition syndicated loan. The acquisition financing is structured in two facilities: one EUR 120 million tranche for the acquisition holding company, owned by Planeta and its shareholders, and one EUR 550 million tranche at Editis level to refinance existing debt.

  The deal values Editis at 1.35 times 2007 revenues. Grupo Planeta's annual sales prior to the acquistion were EUR 2,500 million of which about EUR 1,000 was from their book publishing division.

• The logic for the acquistion?

  José Manuel Lara, Planeta chairman, stated that "the signing of this operation is doubly pleasing for us. Firstly, because it means an important step forward for the strategic development of Grupo Planeta, whose publishing activity, since its creation, has been exclusively focused on the Spanish-speaking market. From now on, we will have access to another great linguistic market, the Francophone market, making us one of the major European publishers. Secondly, because for Editis, belonging to a group like Planeta, with its clear international vocation, opens up great expectations for development as there is no duplicity between them but there are, in contrast, enormous potential synergies.

  Another report in Spanish dated April 22, 2008, accessible through Google's translation into English (sic) says

  [GP chairman] Lara has explained today at a press conference that 'in 2004 and the Grupo Planeta tried to buy Editis, then in the hands of Vivendi Universal, but the operation was closed because not appeared on stage Wendel'.

  According to Lara, the operation in France is a consequence of the strategy Planet, which can hardly grow in the domestic market because 'we can only Spain in a shaft of growth, the textbook, but now is a sector with uncertainty by raamatut policy, because you need some runs high and because it is not known how education will evolve in the future with the new electronic media '.

  Editis, which has a turnover of 760 million euros and 2,600 employees, is also one of the distributors of reference through its subsidiary Interforum. Since 2004, has initiated a process of internationalization with the acquisition of seven new companies, including the Belgian Boeck, who have contributed 150 million euros of turnover. The Planeta Group manages, on balance, a turnover of 2,500 million euros, 1,000 of them for the publishing, and has 12,500 employees. The transaction will be financed with 40% -50% of own resources and the rest through debt ratios, according to Lara, who 'do not represent a debt overhang of paternal society'.

  The acquisition of Editis lead to Planet group to 'think of other magnitudes, not so much to buy another group in France, such as expanding the business into other languages powerful', which has ruled the Asian languages, 'as a matter of different business cultures '.
  

  Grupo Planeta seem to have ambitions of expanding into Asian languages too, which would mean they may be interested in acquiring publishing houses in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and various Indian languages, some of which have far more speakers than either French, German, Japanese or Korean.
  
• How is GP planning to fund the acquisition? According to a Business Week report,

  Jose Manuel Lara, Founder of Grupo Planeta told Le Figaro that the company may launch an initial public offering (IPO) to finance the acquisition of Editis. When Jose Manuel Lara was asked if the company was planning to list on the stock exchange he replied: "Why not?" He did not exclude other possibilities to fund the acquisition.

  
  
• Grupo Planeta's next step? To break into the English publishing market? So says The Bookseller

  The €2bn (£1.57bn) book publishing giant created by the merger of Spain's Planeta and France's Editis will attempt to break into the English--language market once the takeover has been digested.

  In a ranking of global publishers, the deal will take the combined group to just outside the top five, competing for sixth position with Hachette Livre. Significantly, it will be the only group in the top 10 not to have either a UK or US presence.

  In an interview with the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, José Manuel Lara, president of the family-owned Grupo Planeta, said that the combination of the two would "be stronger to tackle the Anglo-Saxon market, even if it remains very difficult to penetrate". Editis chairman and c.e.o. Alain Kouck backed the plan, saying the deal would "enable us to build a new European publishing leader and ensure that Editis can expand outside the French-speaking world". He told The Bookseller: "Publishers reaching a certain size cannot grow [by acquisition] within their national borders without the risk of violating anti-trust laws."

  Planeta is little known outside of continental Europe. Based in Barcelona-when first contacted it said it wanted to conduct the interview in Catalan-the business was founded by Lara's father in 1949 and generates 70% of its €1bn (£785m) in annual book sales from Spain, 20% from Latin America and the remaining 10% from Portugal and Italy. Including its wider media activities, it generates €2.5bn (£1.96bn) in annual sales.

  Lara is a Francophile, having been French-educated in Barcelona during the reign of General Franco. "Our group, which had a tie-up with Larousse for years, always wanted to develop in France," he said. The company had talks with publishers Presses de la Renaissance (before the latter merged with Belfond) and with Presse de la Cité before it was bought by Editis, he said. It also looked at Editis before it was taken over by Wendel four years ago.

  
  
• How did Wendel fare with its acquisition of Editis in 2004 and sale in 2008 to Grupo Planeta? The Bookseller throws some light.

  Wendel should make a capital gain of about €320m (£251m) on the €1bn (£785m) deal. Although the sale came as no surprise, sources noted that when Wendel aquired Editis in 2004, supervisory board chairman Ernest-Antoine Seillière said it would keep the publisher for 10 to 15 years. "Instead, it has walked away after four years with a handsome profit," said one source.

  "No one could know in 2004 how difficult the publishing market would become," Wendel said in response. It denies reports that it opted for Planeta under pressure. "There was no ultimatum," the spokesperson said. "We accepted Planeta's offer, because it has a real project, with a sound, long-term vision and an uncontested leadership. The offer has been welcomed by the whole of the French publishing industry."

  
  
• How is the Planeta-Editis merger likely to fare? An op-ed piece in Spanish, (accessible through Google's translation into English) looks at the possibilities.

  The purchase by Planet of the French Editis is a qualitative and quantitative leap to another international dimension, in a mature market and an unknown environment, highlights the complainant. However, the trajectory of both groups and their management teams generate, in their view, optimistic expectations.

  Apart from the report in The Bookseller, there are no other reports or analysis of the Grupo Plaenta - Editis deal that I could come across in the English press - quite surprising.

For perspective (data from respective annual reports),

• Random House, owned by the Bertelsmann Group, publishes books in English, German and Korean (through its own subsidiaries) and in Spanish (through a joint venture with Mondadori) and Japanese (through a joint venture with Kodansha). Random House's 2007 revenues were EUR 1,837 million (EUR 1,947 million in 2006) with operating EBIT of EUR 173 million (EUR 182 million) at an operating margin of 9.4%. Random House contributes 10% of Bertelsmann's revenues.

• Multilingual book publisher Hachette Book Group, owned by conglomerate Lagardere publishes in French, Spanish and English. It's English publishing division acquired Time Warner Books in early 2006 from AOL-Time Warner in 2006 for US$ 538 million, at a little more than 1 times 2005 sales. Hachette's 2007 book publishing revenues were EUR 2,130 million (EUR 1,962 million in 2006), with operating margins of 11.2% (up from about 6% in 1998). 35% (EUR 746 million) of their 2007 revenues was from France, 10% (EUR 213 million) was from Spain and 41% (EUR 873 million) was from UK, USA and Canada.

• Penguin, owned by Pearson, is an English publisher. It began publishing in the Indian languages of Hindi and Marathi in 2005 in a small way. Penguin's 2007 revenues were £846 million (~ EUR 1,150 Million) with operating EBIT of £74 million (~ EUR 101 million) at an operating margin of 8.75%. Penguin contributes a substantial 20% of Pearson's revenues.

• HarperCollins, owned by NewsCorp, is an English publisher. HC's 2007 revenues were US$ 1,347 million (~ EUR 916 million) , with operating EBIT of US$ 159 million (~EUR 108 million), at an operating margin of 11.8%. HarperCollins contributes just 5% of its parent NewsCorp's revenues.

• Simon & Schuster, an English publisher owned by CBS had 2007 revenues of US$ 886 million (~ EUR 603 million), with operating EBIT of US$ 88 million (~ EUR 60 million), at an operating margin of 10%. Simon & Schuster contributes just 6% of revenues to its parent CBS.

Both HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster might be attractive acquisition targets for a publishing conglomerate like Grupo Planeta with aspirations of breaking into English publishing through acquisitions. Private equity firms have also been eyeing some of the leading publishers for a while now. The book publishing sector seems set for a wave of consolidation over the next decade.

Indian book publishing firm, Frank Brothers, acquired for Rs. 43 Crores (~ US$ 10 million)

Macmillan India Limited announced that it had acquired an 80% stake in Indian book publisher Frank Brothers in November 2007. The Macmillan India web site, their 2007 Annual Report, and the Frank Brothers web site provide more details on Frank Brothers and the acquisition.

• FRANK BROTHERS & CO. (PUBLISHERS) LTD, New Delhi was set up by Shri. K. L. Govil, a dedicated educationist, in 1930. It started off as a proprietary concern which was later converted to a partnership. The Company was incorporated as a private limited company in 1977 and converted into public limited company in 1993. Their web site has more on their early years.
  
• "Frank Bros (FB) is one of the oldest publishing houses in India and is engaged in publishing of quality education books for schools, institutes, government and other educational intermediaries. Frank Brothers is today one of the most reputed brands in the field of school publishing and has more than 1000 active titles in all subjects catering to the needs of ICSE and CBSE students and professional institutes in the areas of hotel management and tourism. Frank Brothers operates through 10 offices all over India with its Head Office at New Delhi and enjoys excellent relationship with around 10,000 Schools and institutions, and trade links with around 5,000 booksellers across India."
• FB's annual turnover for the financial year ended March 2007 was Rs. 31.5 crores.
• FB's sales in the month of December 2007 was Rs. 2.46 crores with a profit before tax of Rs. 20 lakhs for the month.
  
• FB's sales in the JFM quarter of 2008 was Rs. 22.33 crores. Macmillan India's total publishing sales for the same period, including FB's sales, was Rs. 31.5 crores.
  
• FB had a paid-up share capital of Rs. 25 lakhs (2,500 shares with a face value of Rs. 1,000 each) and reserves of Rs. 1.78 crores as on December 31st 2007.
• FB had assets of Rs. 26.53 crores and liabilities of Rs. 24.5 crores as on December 31st 2007.
• FB had 225 staff as on December 31st 2007.
  
• Macmillan had acquired an 80% stake in FB in November 2007 for a sum of Rs. 32.87 crores and has committed to purchase the balance 20% stake for Rs. 9.43 crores (if purchased before Sep 30, 2008) or for Rs. 10.83 crores on or before June 30, 2009.This effectively values the transaction at about Rs. 43 crores (~US$ 10 million).

Macmillan's publishing business focussing on publishing for schools has gotten a big boost thanks to its acquisition of Frank Brothers.

Subsequent to the acquisition, Macmillan India has announced that it is planning to demerge its publishing business and hive it off into a separate company to be called Macmillan Publishers India Limited (MPIL) and has called for an EGM in August 2008 to consider the demerger.

For perspective, in an earlier transaction, Cambridge University Press acquired a 51% stake in Indian publisher and distributor, Foundation Books for a sum of £2.7 million (~ US$ 5 million) on July 17, 2006. Foundation Books was subsequently renamed as Cambridge University Press India Private Limited. Foundation Books had declared revenues of Rs. 25 crores for the fiscal ending March 31, 2006. According to the Cambridge University Press 2007 Annual Report, CUP India's revenues grew by 25% post-acquisition to Rs. 31 crores for the fiscal ending March 31, 2007, which is on par with the revenues of Frank Brothers for the same period.

Are these transactions likely to pave the way for more such acquisitions in the Indian book publishing sector, with plenty of family owned publishing firms? Unlikely. Subroto Majumdar, the then head of Pearson India had stated in an NBT seminar in mid 2007 that Pearson India had seriously considered acquisitions of Indian publishing companies, but gave up after coming across due diligence issues, presumably in terms of copyrights and contingent liabilities.

Technorati Tags: india, book publishing, frank brothers, cambridge university press, macmillan india, revenues,

Hachette India launches its first titles

reports the Publishers Weekly

Hachette Book Publishing India is now in business. The group is a subsidiary of Hachette Livre UK, based in New Delhi and led by managing director Thomas Abraham. Its first titles will be released nationwide in India today. They are The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow (Hodder) and Cold Steel by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey (Little, Brown). Pricing will be in Indian rupees and all books will be in English.

Hachette India currently has a staff of seven with two more signed on to join by the end of the month, and the company plans to up staff numbers to between 20 and 25 by the end of the year. In the first phase of its development, the new venture will concentrate on sales and marketing for Hachette’s trade lists from around the world. Hachette Book Publishing India will launch its local list in early 2009.

They had announced their plans of entering the Indian market in late 2006 and it will be almost two years by the time they launch their first local titles sourced and published in India.

Simon & Schuster announces entry into India.

The Book Standard reports that Simon & Schuster have announced plans to enter India.

[Simon & Schuster] will launch an Indian publishing program in early 2007, following up on the opening of an office in New Delhi in 2006.

A number of titles from Simon & Schuster’s U.S. and U.K. operations will be chosen to be published in English-language, Indian editions, which will be printed locally and priced, packaged and marketed for the Indian marketplace.

The first book in the program will be Mira Kamdar’s Planet India, set to be published in February from Scribner. Rahul Srivastava, Simon & Schuster’s regional sales manager for India, will oversee the program.

“India is one of the fastest growing English-language markets and a world-class economic dynamo with a highly literate populace,” said Jack Romanos, president and CEO of S&S. “An expanding presence there with dedicated sales, marketing and publishing capabilities will be vital to Simon & Schuster’s international publishing efforts in the years ahead.”

The article also adds an interesting piece of information on the growth of publishing in India.

“We’re the only group with no presence there—we sell in but we've got no one on the ground," Hachette UK Deputy CEO Peter Roche told The Bookseller in October. "India is the fastest-growing English-language market in the world.”

Thomas Abraham, president of Penguin India, told The Bookseller that Penguin India had seen 27 percent growth over the past year. “Sales are going through the roof,” he said. “We've sold 20,000 of Vikram Chandra in hardback in a month and a half.”

If 20,000 copies were sold in 45 days, that's pretty good going for a 912 page book priced at Rs. 650 in India.

Prentice Hall India in legal spat with Pearson

IBNlive reports on a legal spat between Pearson which bought Prentice Hall Inc in 1998 and Prentice Hall India, on the use of the Prentice Hall name in India.

The Delhi High Court had earlier ordered Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd (PHI) to drop Prentice Hall from its name. However, PHI filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the High Court order.

The Supreme Court has acted on the petition and has issued a notice to US-based Pearson Education Inc.

The High Court had ordered that the Chairman of PHI, Ashoke K Ghosh to either drop the words Prentice Hall from its name and let Pearson transfer its shareholding without any consideration or sell its shares to the US firm for Rs 20 crore.

According to a report in PTI, the High Court had also held Ghosh guilty of oppression and mismanagement under Section 397-398 of the Companies Act.

PHI had entered into an agreement with US-based Prentice Hall Inc in 1963 for publishing books. However, Prentice Hall Inc was taken over by Pearson in 1998 and the company tried to restrain PHI from using the name Prentice Hall any further.

PHI counsels K K Venugopal and Atul Sharma told PTI that the name 'Prentice Hall' had acquired tremendous goodwill in India and had become PHI's property by virtue of its use for the last 43 years and this must be protected by the court.

Moreover, Pearson was neither a shareholder as per its register of members nor it had applied for transfer of shares in its name, the counsels argued.

In its petition, PHI said the company would suffer severe loss if it was directed to drop the established name.

The Indian publisher also said Pearson was not entitled to file petitions as it had not shown any interests in the affairs of PHI for several years. Besides, the US company had alleged oppression and mismanagement only after PHI protested starting of a competing business by Pearson, it added.

Asoke Ghosh, the Managing Director of Prentice Hall India, was originally an employee of Prentice Hall India and later bought out the erstwhile Indian owner and over time increased his stake to a majority shareholding. More details on the nature of the spat are provided in a September 2005 judgement of the Delhi High Court.

Bracket Books - a new English imprint to be launched in India

India Book Distributors, one of the leading book distributors in India, is foraying into publishing. They are planning to launch Bracket Books, an English language imprint.

Jai Arjun Singh interviewed Shakti Bhatt who is the editor of Bracket Books and was formerly editor with Random House in India. This is what Shakti Bhatt had to say about the new imprint.

Bracket Books is a more concerted and focused effort to publish books for a new generation of readers, and to try and do this in a way that is innovative and relevant. The market for Indian writing in English is large but not large enough for publishers to be complacent about it and take it for granted. It is now more challenging than ever for a book to be noticed, much less picked up.

We are looking at everything. We are starting without pre-conceived notions, for example, that short stories don’t sell. What about Jhumpa Lahiri and Lavanya Sankaran?

In the end, there’s good writing versus bad writing, and good marketing versus bad marketing. We want to start small and slow, and we will take up only those projects that excite us, projects we can commit all our resources to in terms of editing, production, marketing, and sales.

Shakti Bhatt seems to suggest that their focus will be fiction. I wonder if non-fiction figures in their plans.

Newspaper turns book publisher

The Sunday Herald, a Scottish newspaper, has done something very interesting. It has leveraged its brand and turned into a book publisher.

Allmediascotland, a portal tracking Scottish media, reports.

The Sunday Herald has not only made a foray into book publishing, its debut title is proving a sales success. Earlier this month, the newspaper's name was lent to the publication of a book on the conflict in Iraq, 'The War on Truth', by its investigations editor, Neil Mackay. A second Sunday Herald book - 'Intifada - The Long Day Of Rage', by the paper's foreign editor, David Pratt - was published last week. Two more titles are in the pipeline: one, 'Collateral Damage', on the impact of war on civilians; the other, 'Good Bad Guys', about dictators "we have loved".

While the newspaper is lending its name to the publishing venture, it is doing none of the publishing itself. That is being undertaken by independent publishing company, Books Noir Ltd, run by Bob Smith. Says Smith: "Early sales statistics for Neil's book, so far are very impressive. I'd say his book has been one of the best sellers in Scottish book stores this last fortnight. The figures for David's book have yet to come in, it having been published a week later, but I expect his book to be performing just as well." Smith splits time between working for Edinburgh publisher, Birlinn Ltd, which specialises in publishing books on Scottish interest, and Books Noir Ltd, publisher of Sunday Herald Books.

In terms of the arrangement Books Noir has with the Sunday Herald, the paper incurs no cost at all, aside from helping with website development; instead, Books Noir Ltd pays a licence fee to use the Sunday Herald brand."

It was Smith who took the idea to the Sunday Herald - that it should lend its name to "a publishing house specialising in topics of international news interests which directly affect UK citizens".

This is something every newspaper having a large audience and a good brand ought to consider seriously. The newspaper can publish books under its brand, while outsourcing the actual work (of publishing including editing, printing and distribution) to a professional publishing house, if it is unable to deal with the editing and printing of books. The newspaper can take on the responsibility of marketing the books to its audience through its newspaper and drive traffic to bookstores as well as sell direct through a mail-order or phone-order model. Excerpts from the books could also be serialised in the newspaper to enable potential buyers to sample the book before purchase.

This could be an excellent opportunity for Indian newspapers, especially Indian language newspapers, to diversify away from being just a provider of news/gossip/views to becoming a knowledge provider, publishing non-fiction. Newspapers, with their constraints of space, cannot be the medium to take knowledge to the masses. Books on the other hand have been the source of knowledge over centuries and are perfect to take up a topic or issue, start from the basics and delve into it in depth.

If a newspaper in India could sell about 10,000 copies of every new non-fiction title published under its brand, it would count as a major publishing success. Given that books typically sell only 2,000 to 3,000 copies on average in India, unless they're best sellers, in which case they might sell upwards of 10,000 copies, for a newspaper to sell 10,000 copies for most titles published under its brand name would be great.

The Hindu has tried its hand at it by publishing collections of articles on various topics published in the daily newspaper over the years. Some of the titles published by The Hindu include, The Hindu Speaks on Management - Volume I and Volume II, The Hindu Speaks on Education, The Hindu Speaks on Music and Mahatma Gandhi: The Last 200 Days .

But these are just collections of disparate articles. There is scope to do far better. For someone like The Hindu, who also have excellent printing infrastructure and can probably use their current editorial infrastructure or expand it a bit, they may only need to be tie-up with a book distributor.

Leading English fiction publishers in India

Nilanjana Roy profiles the leading players in English fiction publishing in India, in the Business Standard.

Penguin India - Former CEO David Davidar, who now heads Penguin Canada, used to say that Penguin India had published "every Indian author of any importance", and that boast still holds true. Some authors grumble that Penguin has become a factory where the bottom line, rather than literary merit, rules. Others praise Penguin's professionalism and the effort it puts into training its staff. Most debut authors still send their manuscripts to Penguin first.

Penguin India was set up in 1985 as a joint venture between Penguin Group (one of the top 5 global publishing houses) and Aveek Sarkar of the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group. "Today, the company publishes over 200 titles every year and has an active backlist of over 750 titles," according to Penguin India's website. Penguin launched it's Indian language publishing initiative in April 2005 and has published a few titles in Hindi, Urdu and Marathi.

Roli Books: Often dubbed the "maharaja's press" for its signature coffee table books, many of which feature India's erstwhile princes, Roli Books is branching out. Pramod Kapoor started Roli in a ramshackle warehouse in Daryaganj and soon turned it into India's best-known publisher of coffee-table books. Recently, Roli has moved into fiction, general non-fiction and translations. IndiaInk, the imprint that got off to a fairy-tale start by publishing The God of Small Things, is now under its umbrella. But it's the landmark edition of Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan that indicates Roli's real USP might lie in marrying their flair for working with images-Margaret Bourke-White's searing Partition pictures, in this case-with the right book.

Roli publishes in English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese and Spanish!

Rupa & Co: Rupa prides itself on knowing what the "real" reader wants-Anurag Mathur, in a previous generation, Chetan Bhagat in our time, for instance. Rupa, one of the largest in the business, has an incredibly efficient network, which makes up for its uneven editing. But publisher R K Mehra and his son Kapish Mehra both know what works in the market. It’s been a long way from Rupa’s quiet start, with two slender volumes of Bengali verse, to its present status as the publisher that others ignore at their own peril.

Rupa was founded in 1936 (yes, as far back as that!) by D. Mehra, in then Calcutta, which explains their first titles being two volumes of Bengali poems.

HarperCollins India: When HarperCollins first came into India, Penguin and Rupa prepared for a battle that never happened. HarperCollins scored minor successes, but was plagued by unrealistic expectations and trouble on the editorial front. This week, seasoned Penguin executive Karthika Karthikeyan-one of the top three there-took over at the helm. With enough editorial support, she might change HarperCollins peripatetic fortunes in India.

HarperCollins is another of the global publishing majors, a part of Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp.

Picador India (no India website, only Picador Global web site): Picador India began brilliantly, and still has authors of the calibre of Amit Chaudhuri and I Allan Sealy on its list, but has stayed very small. Where it scores is in the care that goes into design and editing, and its willingness, unusual in this age, to build up a stable of literary authors rather than focus on instant bestsellers.

Picador is an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a unit of Macmillan, owned by German media group Holtzbrinck.

Tara Press (no website): Tara Press is part of India Research Press, known for working in close conjunction with authors and editors. The emphasis on design, layout and editing shifts wildly; some books are almost-perfect, others riddled with errors.

This is the odd man out. I'm surprised to find Tara Press listed as a leading English fiction publisher in India. How many novels have they published?

Random House India: New entrant Random House has just a scant handful of books to its credit-Manju Kapur's Home, Abha Dawesar's That Summer in Paris-but it seems to be in India for the long haul. Random is led by the formidably intelligent Chiki Sarkar, who packed in a wealth of experience at Bloomsbury before shifting to India. Random should be fun to watch in the next few years, if it doesn't trip up over the problems that have plagued so many other foreign publishers

Random House is another of the global publishing majors, and a part of the German media group, Bertelsmann. Interestingly, Chiki Sarkar, is the daughter of Aveek Sarkar, who owns Penguin India jointly with Penguin Group.

The two global biggies who are not yet publishing in India are Simon & Schuster (part of the Viacom group) and Little Brown/Time Warner Books (now part of Hachette Book Group). Hachette is planning to set up shop in India and Simon & Schuster expects to be publishing in Indian within the next five years.

Hachette Livre's plans for India

Hachette Livre, owned by the diversified French company, Lagardère, recently announced its plans of setting up shop in India.

According to The Bookseller,

Hachette Livre is eyeing the lucrative Indian market, and is aiming to establish a presence there alongside its global competitors. The publishing giant currently has no operation in India, which represents the third-largest market for English-language books, with over 50 million people using English to communicate and 45% of books being published in English.

Hachette UK deputy c.e.o. Peter Roche said: "We are looking at opening in India. We're meeting everyone and I'm going over in November. We're the only group with no presence there--we sell in but we've got no one on the ground." He added: "India is the fastest-growing English-language market in the world."

Random House set up an operation in India in 2005, and earlier this year Simon & Schuster recruited Rahul Srivastava, formerly the India rep for Random House Inc, to set up an S&S office in Delhi. Cyrus Kheradi, vice-president and group sales director for S&S' international division, said: "I'm sure we'll be opening a full operation in India in the next five years."

Thomas Abraham, president of Penguin India, said the company had seen 27% growth over the past year. "Sales are going through the roof--we've sold 20,000 of Vikram Chandra in hardback in a month and a half." He added: "Hachette needs to have a presence. Over the last three years, growth has been huge."

Outlook Bibliofile adds,

... Hachette Livre, one of the world's largest publishing houses with its recently acquired Time Warner Books, is preparing to test the Indian waters early next year. Just to give you an idea of their size: the Hachette Book Group publishes about 500 adult books, 180 young adult books and 50 audio titles a year. Last year, the Hachette Book Group had a record 69 books on the NYT bestseller list, with 18 ranked #1.

Hachette Livre is one of the few global publishing houses that publishes in multiple languages. Hachette Livre publishes in French, Spanish and English. Hachette Livre acquired Hodder Headline the 4th largest British publisher in 2004 and Time Warner Book Group, the 5th largest US trade publisher in early 2006. It had 2005 revenues of 2.1 billion Euros (including revenues from Time Warner Book Group), with operating margins of about 11.5% according to a recent Lagardère report.

Keep your editors, if you want to keep your authors

So says David Goodwin in Outlook Bibliofile, on the topic of authors following editors who hop from one publishing house to another. The Outlook piece also suggests that HarperCollins' coup will be quite damaging to Penguin India.

At last a Face—in fact two—for famously faceless HarperCollins India. So what if both are borrowed from their rival's stable—they're capable of carrying away dozens of top writers from Penguin's envied list of writers. Penguin's well-known fiction editor, head of Puffins and of trading rights, V.K. Karthika, will join as chief editor at HC. Before Penguin could recover from the shock, HC managed to steal away yet another top editor it had unsuccessfully tried to woo: its non-fiction editor, Krishen Chopra, who counts several PMs and Presidents among his illustrious list of authors.

How easy is it for an author to move out with his editor? In the West, according to lit agent David Godwin, author-editor loyalty invariably wins over contractual obligations. He should know: remember how he wriggled Arundhati Roy out from her contract with HarperCollins India when Pankaj Mishra quit? "If they want to keep their authors, they must keep the editors who got them the authors in the first place," is his take on the issue. Insiders claim the half-dozen titles that HarperCollins lost when Ashok Chopra quit is a mere nosebleed compared to what will ensue now.

Will Penguin's authors follow Karthika and Krishen Chopra to HarperCollins? Time will tell.