Barnes & Noble Education reports fiscal year 2024 financial results with significant debt reduction

Barnes & Noble Education announced its financial results for fiscal year 2024, which concluded on 27 April, 2024. 

The company, which specialises in educational products and services, saw its net loss decrease by $27.6 million, totalling $62.5 million for the fiscal year.

 Adjusted EBITDA improved significantly, reaching $45.2 million, a considerable increase from the previous year's loss of $8.1 million. The improvement was largely attributed to enhanced revenues and various cost-saving initiatives.

The company reported a revenue increase of 1.6%, reaching $1.57 billion, driven primarily by substantial First Day Complete programme growth.

The First Day Complete programme, a key driver of this growth, expanded its store count to 160 locations, serving approximately 805,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students. 

This represents a 39% increase in enrolment compared to the previous year. Despite a net decrease in physical locations, the focus remains on expanding the First Day Complete adoptions, with the company anticipating further growth in fiscal year 2025.

However, the company’s net debt rose to $187.1 million by the end of fiscal year 2024. This increase was influenced by vendors tightening payable terms during the company’s bank refinancing efforts. 

Completing significant equity and refinancing transactions infused approximately $80 million of new cash into the business and established a new four-year, $325 million credit facility. Consequently, payable terms are normalising, and net debt on a seasonally adjusted basis has declined, partly due to the conversion of $34 million of second-lien debt into equity.

Jonathan Shar, CEO of Barnes & Noble Education, commented:

“We sincerely thank our employees, partner institutions, vendors, and other business partners for their support and understanding. It is a relief to move past that difficult phase and embrace a fresh start. We are also grateful to Fanatics, Lids, and VitalSource Technologies for their continued strategic support; we are thrilled to have them as significant shareholders moving forward.

“With a significantly improved balance sheet, Barnes & Noble Education is well-positioned to advance its industry leadership while continuing to strategically invest in innovation and improve the experiences and value we bring to our customers and partner institutions. Our focus will remain on productivity and cost efficiencies, while also making investments in technology. We are seeking to drive material improvements in profitability and to further build upon the strong financial foundation that we have recently attained.”

In June 2024, the company executed a 1-for-100 reverse stock split, resulting in approximately 26.2 million outstanding shares. This move, along with the equity rights offering, adjusted the weighted average shares outstanding and loss per share metrics retroactively for all presented periods.