THE owner of publishing giant Penguin said a “consistently strong” line up of new releases will help its performance this year.
Pearson, which also owns the Financial Times, added that the book business was likely to be “in line” with the industry in 2012 following years of out-performance.
Penguin, whose UK arm published 78 top 10 best-sellers last year, expects to benefit from a strong publishing schedule, including comedian David Walliams’ autobiography Camp David and sports presenter Clare Balding’s childhood memoirs.
Pearson, which also has a large education division, reported an 11% rise in sales to £1.16bn in the first three months of 2012 but warned first half operating profits will be lower than last year.
Penguin said it intends to “mount a robust defence” in civil proceedings brought against a number of publishers by the US Department of Justice over allegations of price fixing for electronic books.
