Hodder Headline lifts profits after publishing merger

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HODDER Headline has got off to a good start this year, Tim Hely Hutchinson, the book publisher's chief executive, said yesterday. Moreover, he expects annual savings of about pounds 4m a year from the merger in June that brought Hodder & Stoughton into Headline Book Publishing to create Hodder Headline.

Hodder made pre-tax profits of pounds 2.6m ( pounds 2.1m) on sales of pounds 51.1m ( pounds 15.7m) in 1993. The results reflected the second half of Hodder & Stoughton's financial year as well as a pounds 1.9m exceptional charge covering pounds 200,000 of transaction costs, pounds 500,000 of property provisions and pounds 1.2m of reorganisation costs relating to the merger. Redundancy costs of pounds 5.3m were dealt with in a fair value adjustment. A final dividend of 3.35p makes 5p.