The reinsurer SCOR has entered into exclusive negotiations with Albin Michel to sell him the publishing house Humensis, which includes in particular the Presses universitaire de France (PUF), the educational publishing house Belin, the collection Que sais-je? and the Editions des Equateurs or Editions. of the Observatory. This information was released on Wednesday, October 9, to representatives of the company’s economic and social committee (CSE).
Two candidates for the acquisition were in the running: Flammarion (Madrigall group) and Albin Michel. Therefore, the latter option was preferred. The price of the transaction was not disclosed and the sale is expected to take several more weeks to close.
Humensis, which brings together eleven publishers in the humanities, sciences, documentary essays, education and general literature, was created in 2016 solely thanks to the former director of SCOR, Denis Kessler, who decided to save the PUF from bankruptcy. An ardent defender of the concept of “knowledge society”, he had committed SCOR to this intellectually stimulating, but very expensive and distant diversification from the main activity of the reinsurance group.
School reform
Despite the successes in bookstores, thanks to Abel Quentin, Sylvain Tesson and Gaspard Koenig, the group, which has diversified over the years into specialized magazines, has suffered significant financial setbacks. SCOR therefore had to recapitalize the company to the tune of €8 million after a difficult financial year in 2022.
Shortly after the death of Denis Kessler in June 2023, SCOR without hesitation commissioned the investment bank Gimar & Co to resell Humensis. This transfer was prolonged due to questions about the school reform desired by Gabriel Attal, now in limbo.
This variable is precisely what allows us to calculate the valuation of Belin, the publisher of Humensis. In this very cyclical sector, the sale of school textbooks is, in fact, directly related to national educational reforms. In 2016, the year of the last university reform, this publishing sector reached a maximum of 331 million euros, but since then, due to lack of reform, it has remained below 200 million. And Belin is only the fourth player in the school publishing sector in France.
