Despite the current state of flux in the US multimedia retail environment, Dorling Kindersley Holdings Plc has once again reported a strong performance for the year. Shares rose 13.5 pence to 545p yesterday as the London-based book and CD-ROM publisher turned in a 37% rise in pre-tax profits to UKP17.4m on revenue that rose by 26% to UKP174.4m. The US accounted for 38% of the group’s profits – and one wonders what would be possible if the US market stablized. All businesses performed well during the year, said chairman Peter Kindersley. Its largest, Adult & Children’s, division brought in UKP141.1m, 81% of the group’s revenues. The Multimedia division gained ground and revenue increased by 62% to UKP21m, which represented 12% of total revenue, up from 9% the previous year. Internationally the Multimedia division has publishing partners in 16 countries and exclusive English language distributors in four others. DK Direct has continued its move away from its traditional business of producing multi-volume continuity series for direct mail companies. The division launched its first CD-ROM in May and the company has now decided to absorb the business into that of DK Adult & Children. Dorling said that all multimedia staff have joined DK Multimedia to develop the division’s on-line capabilities. The group was also awarded a deal to produce one of the first 10 multimedia titles worldwide for Intel Corp’s launch of its Pentium processor’s new MMX instruction set, planned for January. Dorling closed the year with a healthy net cash balance of UKP6.5m and said it had confidence that stability in the US would return in due course. A final dividend of 3.0 pence will be paid, which brings the total for the year to 4.5 pence, an increase of 15%.
