March 1, 2021 – Leiden | Boston | Paderborn | Singapore | Beijing – Brill, a leading international academic publisher in the humanities, social sciences and international law, announces today that it has reached agreement with the shareholders of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage (“V&R”) to acquire all business assets of V&R. This renowned German publishing house, founded in 1735 and headquartered in Göttingen, has a superb and long-standing international reputation in the Humanities, especially in the fields of Theology and History. Since 2017 Böhlau Verlag, another high-quality humanities publisher, based in Cologne and Vienna, is also part of the V&R group. Total revenue of the V&R group amounted to c. 10 million euro in 2020.
The German-language countries constitute one of the most important and stable Humanities publishing markets in the world. By adding V&R to its portfolio, Brill will become one of the leading Humanities publishers in Germany with over 850 new book titles per year and a journal portfolio of ca. 70 journals published out of Germany and Austria. This includes both English and German language content.
The German operations of V&R will be combined with Brill’s existing publishing activities in Germany. In 2021, Brill will generate an annualized revenue in Germany and Austria of around 16 million euro. Authors will benefit from our combined marketing and sales efforts that will increase the impact of their research, customers will benefit from our increased sales capacity both internationally and in the German language market that will enhance the customer service level we can give them, and staff will benefit from shared facilities and tools available to them.
“Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht is Brill’s twin in Germany: a very long family tradition, excellent reputation among authors and scholars and leading in the Humanities, mainly in the same fields as Brill” says Brill’s CEO Peter Coebergh. “With the acquisition Brill reaches its strategic objective, set with the acquisition of Schöningh & Fink in 2016, to create a second home market in Germany and generate a revenue in Germany of more than 10 million euro within 5 years.”
“Through Brill’s previous acquisitions in Germany, Brill will promote the importance of V&R by digitizing content, increasing sales in international library markets, and expanding the open access model. Optimizing workflows and increasing collaboration with authors and partner institutions will also strengthen its market presence,” according to the former owners of V&R.
The acquisition of V&R is expected to positively contribute to Brill’s EBITDA and underlying Earnings Per Share (EPS) in 2021 and be accretive to EBITDA and EPS attributable to shareholders as of 2023, following completion of integration activities in 2022. The transaction will be effectuated through a purchase by Brill’s subsidiary Brill Deutschland GmbH and Brill’s new subsidiary Brill Österreich GmbH of all assets and liabilities pertinent to the business. The transaction will be financed with cash and an acquisition facility provided by Rabobank NL. The acquisition will be effective as of March 1, 2021 and results from V&R will be included in the consolidated figures of the Brill Group per that date.
About Brill Founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill is a leading international academic publisher in Middle East and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Classical Studies, History, Biblical and Religious Studies, Languages & Linguistics, Literature & Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Biology, Education, Social Sciences and International Law. With offices in Leiden (NL), Boston (US), Paderborn (GER), Singapore (SG) and Beijing (CN), Brill today publishes over 300 journals and close to 1,400 new books and reference works each year, available in print and online. Brill also markets a large number of primary source research collections and databases. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. Brill is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information, please visit Brill.com.
About Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht has been publishing scientific literature in Göttingen (GER) since 1735, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the world. Since 2017, the tradition-rich Böhlau Verlag, with offices in Vienna (AUS) and Cologne (GER) has complemented the portfolio. The product range of Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage includes publications in the humanities and cultural sciences as well as practice-oriented publications in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy, for churches, schools and educational institutions. The imprint V&R unipress is a valued cooperation partner of renowned universities. Together with university advisory boards, the programs are designed by Bonn University Press, Vienna University Press, Mainz University Press and the Universitätsverlag Osnabrück. In addition to high-quality print publications, most of the titles are also published as eBooks (PDF) or ePub (for e-readers). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Publishers invest in future-oriented technologies and increasingly expand their portfolio with open access publications. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage today publishes more than 850 new books and up to 70 journals each year.
For further information, please visit www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com.
Contact Peter Coebergh, Chief Executive Officer | coebergh@brill.com | +31 (0)6 53 57 83 25
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