Key Figures (in EUR x million) 2018 H1 2017 H1
Revenues 16.1 16.0
EBITDA 0.7 1.1
Operating profit 0.2 0.8
Profit 0.1 0.4
Profit per share (EUR) 0.08 0.20
Net cash from operating activities 0.6 -0.1
Key Performance Indicators
Organic Growth (excluding acquisition and currency effects) 1.0% 2.2%
EBITDA Margin 4.4% 7.0%
EBITDA Margin organic development 6.9% 7.0%
NOTE: The information in this report is based on unaudited interim financial statements

Highlights
• Continued success in the Asian market across all product formats
• Good growth in the journal program
• Unexpected weakness in the US and EU impacted Q2 ebook revenue in particular
• Improved cash generation due to improved working capital
• Product and deal pipeline provide opportunities for growth in H2
• Profit improvement plan announced to achieve run rate savings of over EUR 0.6m as of 2020.
Developments in the first half year
Following a first quarter developing in line with expectations, we experienced a slowdown in Q2 in ebook sales in the US and print sales in the EU. In the US, especially one-off sales and third-party sales of ebooks experienced a downturn. We did complete a major ebook sale with a top North American university, rendering the balance of major deals versus last year positive. Title output increased as well as journal issue output. Schöningh & Fink met expectations in H1 and showed satisfactory growth.
In Q2 we completed development on the second stage of brill.com and we are now in the process of migrating subscription and license data to the new platform. We expect to sunset the current Brill online platform in Q4. The back office migration of Schöningh & Fink is nearing completion with the migration to our common ERP system planned in Q3.
Management and Strategy update
Following the Annual General Meeting of 17 May 2018, exactly 335 years after Jordaan Luchtmans established the publishing business that was to become Brill, Herman Pabbruwe stepped down as CEO of the company and the new Executive Committee, consisting of Peter Coebergh (CEO), Olivier de Vlam (CFO | COO) and Jasmin Lange (CPO) took office.

Under new management, Brill will continue to pursue its long-term strategy of expanding market presence, enhancing commercial capabilities and investing in operations. In addition, the Executive Committee defined two strategic imperatives which are required for long-term success; publishing excellence and profit improvement.
Publishing excellence
A reputation for and commitment to publishing excellence has always been key to the sustainability of our business. We operate from a strong belief that Humanities, Social Sciences and International Law are vital scholarly subject areas for addressing today’s global issues. This belief motivates us to offer our authors the best possible service and a top class infrastructure to disseminate their research. Brill also wants to support scholars in advocating the relevance of their fields of research and in sourcing the means to finance research and publications. Consequently we support and promote the open access model and continue to invest in our open access service.
Profit improvement
As indicated earlier and following due analysis of Brill’s cost structure, the Executive Committee resolved to implement a profit improvement plan during the remainder of 2018 and 2019. The plan will entail actions to improve the gross margin and the operating expense level while continuing to invest in areas strategic to Brill’s long-term development. The first wave of initiatives identified aims to achieve a recurring reduction in operating cost cumulating to EUR 0.6m as of 2020, barring changes in business scope or strategy. The company expects one off pre-tax expenditures in 2018 and 2019 of EUR 0.8m in total. The expenditures and savings achieved related to this initiative will be reported separately. Given the one-time nature of the expenditures and Brill’s long-term favorable outlook, our dividend policy remains unchanged.

Financial Review
Total H1 revenues showed 1% organic growth versus the prior year:
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