It sounds like RBI’s restructuring may not yet be over.
Reporting eight percent lower revenue for the first half of the year, parent Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) said “leading (RBI) brands returned to growth in the first half; (but there are) continuing difficult print advertising markets in other business magazines“.
Amongst the “leading brands portfolio”, RBI highlights ICIS, Bankers Almanac and XpertHR. But RBI now also has a segment it’s calling “other business magazines”, where stragglers included “continued weakness in the US construction markets served by Reed Construction Data“.
The performance of this “other” segment, which sounds rather unloved and ripe for an off-load, more than wiped out gains made by the Totaljobs and Hotfrog websites. But RBI adjusted operating profit is up 33 percent to £53 million after all the previous restructuring and sell-offs.
Group-wide Reed Elsevier net profit is up 19 percent from last year to £377 million despite a three percent revenue dip. The group is led by CEO Erik Engstrom.