Today, the meeting of the Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., chaired by Marina Berlusconi, reviewed and approved the Half-Year Report at 30 June 2025 presented by CEO Antonio Porro.

“The results we have achieved during the first half of the year are in line with expectations and confirm our forecasts”, declared Antonio Porro, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of the Mondadori Group. “This data reflects the general weakness recorded and expected on the trade book market in Italy, also due to the period publication, by all publishers, of fewer new successes than in the first six months of 2024”, Mr Porro, stressed. “We now look optimistically towards the second part of the year, during which we confirm our expectations for a progressive improvement in the scenario, already suggested by the market trend recorded in the four weeks of July, with growth of almost two percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year, such growth being driven by the performance of the Mondadori Group publishing houses”, Mr Porro concluded.

PERFORMANCE AT 30 JUNE 2025

During the first half of 2025 consolidated revenue came to € 389.5 million, highlighting slight growth (+0.6%) compared with the first half of the previous year (€ 387.2 million at 30 June 2024).
Like-for-like, due to the inclusion of Star Shop Distribuzione (from 1 February 2024), Chelsea Green Publishing (from 1 May 2024) and Fatto in casa da Benedetta (from 1 October 2024), the revenue declined slightly (-0.8%).

Adjusted EBITDA, equal to € 40.5 million, revealed substantial stability compared with the € 40.9 million at 30 June 2024, also thanks to the early restocking of Education Books top accounts.

The Group’s reported EBITDA amounted to € 39.2 million, down € 3.2 million compared to the first half of 2024, which had benefited, from lower restructuring costs and the release of some provisions for risks in the Media area, allocated against contingent liabilities that did not materialise.

The Mondadori Group’s EBIT for the first six months of 2025, positive for € 8 million, has shown a downturn of € 4.7 million compared with the same period of FY 2024, also due, in addition to what has already been described, to higher amortisation totalling € 1.5 million booked during the period under review, and concentrated in particular in the Trade Books area and Corporate area.
Neutralising the extraordinary items and the amortisation deriving from the allocation of the price for the companies acquired in the last five years (PPA), Adjusted EBIT for the first half of FY 2025 would stand at € 13.6 million, compared with the € 15.4 million of the same period of 2024.

The consolidated result before tax is positive for € 4.1 million, down by approximately € 5 million compared with the € 9.4 million at 30 June 2024: the downturn to EBIT in fact comes in addition to an increase of € 0.6 million in financial charges. By contrast, a higher contribution of approximately € 0.2 million was made by associates.

Tax costs in the first half of 2025 totalled € 0.6 million, a reduction compared with the € 1.4 million at 30 June 2024 due to the lower pre-tax result.

The Group’s net profit at 30 June 2025, after minority interests, amounted to € 3.5 million, down € 3.6 million compared with the € 7.1 million of the first half of 2024, despite a lesser portion of minority interests.

Adjusted net profit, net of all non-recurring items, would amount to € 7.6 million, compared to € 9 million in the first half of the previous financial year.

The Net Financial Position gross of IFRS 16 as at 30 June 2025, stood at € -218.8 million (net debt), showing a slight increase compared with the -211.9 million at 30 June 2024; the strong cash generation of the business enabled the financing of the acquisition of Fatto in casa da Benedetta, as well as the increased remuneration of shareholders, without significantly raising the Group’s financial exposure.

The Net Financial Position IFRS 16 at 30 June 2025, equal to € -300.1 million (net debt), grew by approximately € 7 million from the € -293.3 million at 30 June 2024.

Cash flow from ordinary operations (i.e. after the cash-out for financial charges and tax) of the last twelve months prior to 30 June 2025 stood at € 64 million, confirming the Group’s capacity to continue to finance its development policy.

As at 30 June 2025, extraordinary cash flow was negative by approximately € 30 million, mainly due to net cash-out related to M&As for around € 14 million, restructuring costs of around € 4 million and the costs relating to the renovation of the Segrate headquarters of around € 6 million.

Consequently, Free Cash Flow at 30 June 2025, positive for € 33.8 million, confirms the capacity to increasingly remunerate shareholders, without compromising the solidity and continued financial strengthening of the company.

The Group has, in fact, fully booked the dividends allocated to its shareholders of € 36.5 million (of which 50% was distributed in May, while the remainder will be distributed in November 2025).

OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR

The economic and financial figures for the first half of the year were in line with the relevant forecasts, which estimated, albeit to a more limited extent than actually proved to be the case, an overall weakness in the book market for the entire first half of 2025 compared to the previous year.
Therefore, the Group believes that it can confirm the guidance disclosed previously for FY 2025, which reflects the expectation of an improvement in the market context during the second part of the year and an even more marked improvement in the Group’s performance.

As a consequence of the foregoing, the guidance confirms:

Income Statement:

• low single-digit revenue growth;
• low single-digit growth of Adjusted EBITDA and, therefore, margins stable at around 17%.

Cash Flow and Net Financial Position

• Even in a context that was generally difficult, the Group is expected to confirm its significant capacity to generate cash, despite a scheduling of the publishing plan of the Trade Books area that may result in a partial postponing of collections from late 2025 to early 2026;
• the Group’s Net Financial Debt (IFRS 16) is expected to come in, at end FY 2025, as 1.0x adjusted EBITDA (from 1.1x at end 2024), while NFP (no IFRS 16) is expected to improve to 0.5x adjusted EBITDA (no IFRS 16).

PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS AREAS

TRADE BOOKS AREA

During the first half of the year, 2025 saw a negative trend of the book market, which in the first six months of the current year revealed a downturn of 5% in value^[1].

This decline is due on the one hand to the replacement of APP18 by the Carte della Cultura e del Merito (Culture and Merit Cards, the effects of which on the market were noted through to April) and on the other, to the publication by most publishers of fewer new successes.

In this context, revenue from the Trade Books area in the first half of 2025 came to € 180 million, down 4.5% compared with the previous year, or 3% excluding the impact of the end of the concession relative to the Roman archaeological area of the Coliseum.

Adjusted EBITDA, equal to € 20.7 million, showed a decline of around € 7 million due to the lesser margin deriving from the reduction in publishing revenue of both paper and digital products, to the end, in April 2024, of the concession related to the Coliseum area activities and the failure to repeat a commercial operation run by the publisher Star Comics, which had been implemented during the early months of 2024, with a positive impact on the Area’s profitability.

EDUCATION BOOKS AREA

School textbooks were characterised by the typical seasonal performance of the business that sees sales squeezed in the second half of the year following the adoption campaign.

In the first half of 2025, the School business recorded total revenue of € 69.8 million, up 14.2% compared to the € 61.1 million reported in the first half of 2024. This positive change is exclusively attributable to the bringing forward of restocking by top accounts.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Education Books area in the first half of FY 2025, came to € 7.3 million, an improvement compared with the € 1.9 million recorded during the first six months of 2024, almost entirely due to the above-specified bringing forward of restocking by top accounts, mainly concentrated in higher profit segments.

RETAIL AREA

In a context characterised by a downturn of the book market and a more generalised decline in consumption, the Retail area has shown slight growth (+0.5% in terms of sell-out at value) and has continued to record considerably better performance than otherwise seen on the market.

Consequently, thanks to the contribution made by directly-managed stores and franchises, Mondadori Retail holds a 13.4% share of the market (+0.7% compared with the first half of last year), which becomes almost 20% in the physical channel alone.

During the first half of FY 2025, the Retail area (including revenue from comics and the e-commerce website of Star Shop Retail, consolidated since 1 February 2024), recorded total revenue (book and non-book) for € 93.4 million, thereby showing an increase of 2.1% compared with the previous year.

At an organic level (excluding the revenue of Star Shop Retail), revenue was up 1.2%; the increase would have been even greater, equal to 2.9%, without the negative impact (approximately € 1.5 million during the first half of 2025) deriving from the temporary closure, for renovation, of the Rizzoli book shop in Milan, which reopened to the public in May.

An analysis of the sales by channel reveals, compared with the first half of 2024:

• further growth in revenue of direct bookstores (+5.3%);
• the continuous improvement of franchisee bookstores (+2.7%);
• the decline of the on-line channel (-1%) due to the transition from the current e-commerce website to the new omnichannel platform;
• the positive impact of revenue deriving from the management of Star Shop comics and e-commerce website, consolidated starting 1 February 2024.

The Retail area presented Adjusted EBITDA of € 5.4 million in the first six months of FY 2025, slightly up compared with the same half of the previous year. This result, achieved despite the negative impact (€ 0.5 million) of the specified temporary closure of the Rizzoli Milan book shop for renovation, confirms the constant progressive improvement in the Area’s performance.

MEDIA AREA

In H1 2025, revenue in the Media area amounted to € 72.6 million, showing an increase of approximately 1% compared with the same period of the previous year, stemming from the strong growth in the Digital component, which more than offset the structural downturn of the component linked to print activities.

The digital business, which accounts for approximately 48% of the area’s total revenue, has shown growth of 13% (approximately +8% like-for-like), deriving in particular from the positive performance of the MarTech segment (around +11%) and the excellent results recorded by the social agencies, while the print business was down by approximately 8%, due to the structural decline of circulation and joint sales recorded in the period under review.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Media area came to € 12.4 million in H1 2025, showing growth of approximately 23% compared with the previous year, mainly due to the print business segment.

The presentation of the results at 30 June 2025, approved today by the Board of Directors, is available on www.1info.it and on www.mondadorigroup.com (Investors section). A Q&A session will be held in conference call mode at 4.30 pm for the financial community, attended by the CEO of the Mondadori Group, Antonio Porro, and the CFO, Alessandro Franzosi. Journalists will be able to follow the meeting in listening mode only, by connecting to the following phone number +39.02.8020927 or via web at: https://hditalia.choruscall.com/?calltype=2&info=company. 

The Financial Reporting Manager – Alessandro Franzosi – hereby declares, pursuant to Article 154 bis, paragraph 2, of the Consolidated Finance Law, that the accounting information contained herein corresponds to the Company’s records, books and accounting entries. 

Annexes (in the complete pdf): 

1. Consolidated Statements of Financial Position
2. Consolidated Income Statement
3. Consolidated income statement – II quarter
4. Group cash flow
5. Glossary of terms and alternative performance measures used

^{[1] Source: GfK, June 2025}