Good afternoon to you all, and thank you for your attention. Let's start this overview from the key takeaways that have characterized the first months of the current year. 2026 began with strategic deals that strengthened our competitive positioning. The first one was the majority stake acquisition of edilportale.com, finalized at the beginning of the year, company consolidated within the digital area starting from the 1st of January. The second one has been the recent closing of the acquisition of Hoepli school and academic publishing business unit, signed on the 30 of April, an historic and highly prestigious brand which will strengthen our catalog in key specific segment of the secondary school and university.
The book market in the current year has shown positive trend, thanks to the funding allocated to libraries with our publishing houses, increasing both revenues and profitability, despite some issues faced during the transition of the new logistic providers. Infact, in the first three months of the current financial year, the trade books and the retail business areas had to manage the takeover activity of the new logistic operators, whose contracts are effective from 1st March 2026, simultaneously with the phase-out activities from the warehouses managed by the previous provider.
This period was impacted by operational difficulties subsequently resolved, which particularly affected the distribution of new releases in the trade book area and the suppliers of the Mondadori Store e-commerce channel in the retail area. We continues with the analysis of the performance of the trade book market in the first three months of the current year.
The first quarter of 2026 showed a positive start to the year, thanks to the resources backed by the library fund, used in particular in the physical channel. Mostly in the independent bookshops, the increase in the book market has been equal to 3.4% in value in the quarter compared to the previous year, growth that has been particularly relevant in the months of February and March. With regard to the sale channel mix, it is worth noting that the refinancing of the library fund through resources that are used mainly in local bookstores leads to an acceleration of the different and almost structural trend at the national level.
The e-commerce, now representing 35% of the book market, recorded a decline in sales of approximately 2% compared to the first three months of 2025, while physical retail channels show a relevant growth of almost 7%. In this context, the Mondadori Group publishing brands recorded a 2.2% growth in the quarter under review. A lower performance attributable to the weak trend shown in the months of January, due not only to the comparison with the same period of the previous year, in which the highly successful title of Pope Francis, Spera, the autobiography, was published by Mondadori, but also to some logistic issues in the distribution of new titles as already anticipated. Nevertheless, the Mondadori Group confirmed its national leadership with a market share of 26.1% at March 2026.
The growth trend of the book market continued in the five weeks following the end of the first quarter, bringing the year-to-date performance to the first week of May to a 4% of market and to a 2.9% of group's publishing brands. Let me highlight and briefly comment the group economic performance in the first quarter of the current year that typically represent less than 20% of our full-year revenue.
In the first part of 2026, the consolidation of the newly acquired Edilportale in the digital area and the vitality of the book market that positively impacted the revenues of our trade books area supported the overall performance of the group in the first quarter of the year. We recorded a growth in revenue close to 4%, thanks predominantly to the discontinuity in the consolidation perimeter in the digital area and to the organic growth in the trade books area. Like for like, the growth would have been close to 1%.
Adjusted EBITDA equal to EUR 1.3 million, showing a decrease of EUR 0.5 million compared to the EUR 1.8 million recorded in the same period of 2025, attributable to the education books and media areas, as we will see in the next slides. EBIT recorded a decrease of approximately EUR 4.4 million, also due, in addition to the factor already mentioned, to higher non-recurring charges, partly attributable to costs relating to extraordinary transaction concluded this year, partly deriving from higher restructuring costs and to higher depreciation and amortization totaling EUR 2.0 million and resulting from investment made in 2025. Adjusted EBIT, net of non-recurring IT items and PPA, come to EUR - 13.8 million, decreasing less versus EUR - 11.4 million of the same period 2025.
Net loss amounted to EUR 16.3 million, down from EUR 13 million accounted in the first three months 2025. While the adjusted net loss, neutralizing extraordinary component and amortization resulting from the PPA, would be equal to EUR 13 million, down by EUR 1.8 million from the EUR -11.2 million of the same period of the previous financial year. The higher financial charges for EUR 0.6 million, mainly due to higher bank interest and a higher IFRS 16 related debt, were fully offsetted by the improvement of the same amount in the result of associates. Coming to the breakdown of the top line trend versus first quarter 2025, in the trade book area, revenues recorded an increase of 2.8% or a 4% growth at constant euro dollar exchange rate.
The education books business recorded revenues of EUR 7.8 million, down 9.8% compared to the previous year, a performance that is not indicative of the trend of the full year as registered in the less relevant quarter from a sustainability standpoint and mainly attributable to the dynamics of suppliers to wholesalers. The retail area recorded a 1.7% decrease net of negative temporary impact of logistic issues on the e-commerce channel estimated at around EUR 1.9 million. Revenue would witness a 2.3% growth, confirming the vitality of the book product in the physical channel.
The digital area delivered an improvement of over 30% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, thanks to the combined effect of the consolidation of Edilportale and the excellent business performance deriving in particular from Martech activities, like for like growth in the quarter and the review stood at 5.3%. The media area revenues were up 6.3% compared to the first three months 2025, thanks to the growth recorded in the period by add-on sales, in particular linked to a couple of initiatives that had a positive commercial outcome, which more than offset the structural decline in circulation.
The adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of the current year amounted to EUR 1.3 million, showed a slight decrease of EUR 0.5 million compared to the EUR 1.8 million recorded in the same period of 2025. This trend was impacted by some temporary business effect in the education books area, among which the most relevant are, on one hand, an increase in promotional expenses related to the anticipated commercial advertising, also due to the change to school curricula introduced by the new Italian guidelines. On the other, an increase in expenses related to the launch of logistic activities with the new provider, which will be offsetted by lower cost in the following quarters of the year.
Furthermore, on the negative side, lower grants in the media business have been accounted for the first months of the current year for EUR 0.4 million. Excluding this effect, the adjusted EBITDA for the period recorded an increase of EUR 1.2 million versus the previous year, mainly thanks to the business improvement already described and the positive contribution from the recent acquired companies. As already seen, the lower profitability versus first quarter 2025 comes mainly from the education books and media area. In particular, the trade books area increased by 9% to EUR 10.4 million in the quarter, thanks to the positive performance of the publishing revenues together with the reduction of the cost structure.
The education books stood at EUR -15.1 million, compared to EUR -13.2 million recorded in the same period of 2025. Decreasing EUR 1.9 million due primarily to the temporary effect described in the previous slide. The retail area recorded a significant improvement of approximately 23% equal to EUR 0. million, driven by the positive performance of the bookshops network. The high margin of physical stores, direct and franchised, more than fully offsetted the decline in the online revenues registered in the first quarter of the year. The digital area delivered a global improvement of EUR 1.3 million or 68% compared to the previous fiscal year, deriving from both contribution of Edilportale and the positive like-for-like performance of digital activities.
The media area generated EUR 2.3 million, down from EUR 3.5 million in the same period of the previous year. A decrease attributable to lower government grants of EUR 0.4 million and higher advertising costs incurred in the quarter for the launch of the new add-on sales initiatives. Moving to the cash position, we can see that the group confirmed its cash flow generation. The cash flow generated in the last 12 months by ordinary operation amounts to EUR 61.7 million, slightly down from the fiscal year 2025 figures due to the logistic issues that negatively impacted the e-commerce in the retail area, with cash in expected to be postponed in the second half of this year.
The consolidated net financial position before IFRS 16 amounts to about EUR 164 million, an increase compared to EUR 134.1 million at March 2025. Despite the ongoing positive cash generation by the group business in the last 12 months, due to the cash out for M&A and for dividend distribution to shareholders. The comparison with the net debt at 2025 year-end reflects the typical absorption in the first quarter, resulting from the seasonal pattern of the school business increase of about EUR 79 million in the first three months, overall of which EUR 34 million related to the acquisition of Edilportale.
Analyzing the change in the group net debt between March 2026 and March 2025, we observe that, as already seen, the ordinary cash flow showed in the last 12 months a slight decrease due to higher CapEx and lower retail e-commerce receivable cash in, as already mentioned. Cash out related to tax and financial charges amounted to EUR 26.6 million. Extraordinary cash flow was negative by EUR 55 million and includes cash out for M&A of about EUR 44 million, primarily consisting of the acquisition of Edilportale, including the relative earn-out and the 51% stake purchase of MA Retail. Restructuring cost for EUR 4 million and the renovation of the quarter for around EUR 2 million. Consequently, the LTM free cash flow was positive for EUR 6.5 million, confirming the group's ability to self-finance its M&A plan.
The consolidated net financial position IFRS 16 amount to about EUR 252 million, up from approximately EUR 213 million at March 2025, due to what has been already described and to a higher IFRS 16 debt linked to the retail network development. Let's now end our brief presentation with the confirmation of our outlook for the full year 2026. In light of the results achieved in the first quarter and the positive performance of the book market, also in the following weeks, the group believes it can confirm the previously announced guidance for the 2026 full year.
We are expecting a low single-digit growth in revenues and in adjusted EBITDA, with the group profitability stable at 17%, thanks to ongoing efficiency measure implemented in all business areas. We also confirm the cash generation capacity and therefore estimate ordinary cash flow to stay in the range between EUR 65 million and EUR 70 million. Thank you all for your attention.