London-based publisher Quarto told investors on Tuesday that it was anticipating revenue and profits to be in line with its previous trading update thanks to a strong second half performance and a solid holiday trading period.
Quarto, which creates and owns proprietary content from a diverse portfolio of imprints aimed at developing long-lasting content across certain niches of interest, managed to reduce net debt over the second half of the year ended 31 December from $75.8m to $64m, however, on a year-on-year level debt had increased $2.1m.

Marcus Leaver, chief executive, said, "While 2017 was, overall, a challenging, transitional year, we are now a pure-play intellectual property business. We are particularly pleased with our strong trading performance in the second half, including the holiday period, with our Children's business once again showing growth."

"We have moved into 2018 with clear objectives about realigning our portfolio with the broader market and consumer trends and making the financial and operational improvements required to fulfil our ambitions, including strengthening our balance sheet as a platform for growth," he added.

As of 1045 GMT, shares had gained 3.40% to 153.55p.

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