<p>在英国，越来越少的人在阅读书籍。数据清晰明了。</p>
<p>过去二十年，每天在校外阅读的儿童数量减半，而表示在闲暇时间喜欢阅读的儿童数量下降了 36%。</p>
<p>在成年人中，阅读人数也在急剧下降。在去年的 YouGov 调查中，五分之二的人表示他们在过去一年中没有阅读或听过书籍——而在 2001 年，这一比例约为四分之一。</p>
<p>对于 Waterstones 来说，这样的数据本应引发警报。考虑到高街危机，你可能会认为阅读的下降会使 Waterstones 等企业面临被裁员的风险。</p>
<p>然而，英国最大的书商 Waterstones 的气氛却完全不是这样。事实上，Waterstones 的所有者对业务充满信心，正准备进行数十亿英镑的上市，预计最早将在这个夏天进行。</p>
<p>本月，有消息称，公司的所有者 Elliott Advisors 已安排 Rothschild 的顾问来处理这一过程。</p>
<p>这家私募股权集团正准备将 Waterstones 和其美国兄弟公司 Barnes &amp; Noble 一起上市，作为一个整体业务。</p>
<p>从 Waterstones 的表现来看，Elliott 被认为倾向于选择伦敦证券交易所进行合并公司的首次亮相。</p>
<p>James Daunt，这位备受赞誉的书商首席执行官，同时也负责 Barnes &amp; Noble，他本人是英国人。</p>
<p>Daunt 曾表示，公司上市是 “不可避免的”。预计在接下来的几周内将聘请银行。Elliott 迄今为止拒绝对此过程发表评论。</p>
<p>所有这些都引发了一个问题：当越来越多的人放弃书籍时，Elliott 为何对 Waterstones 如此有信心？</p>
<p>Daunt 坚称，尽管购买书籍的人群较小，但书籍销售依然强劲。</p>
<p>“阅读下降的故事显然与书籍购买没有相关性，” 他说。“出版商和独立书商，以及我们自己，在美国和英国都表现良好。”</p>
<p>数据支持了他的观点。尽管高街遭遇了一系列零售崩溃和商店关闭，英国独立书商的数量去年略有上升。</p>
<p>Barnes &amp; Noble 和 Waterstones 去年共盈利 4 亿美元（3 亿英镑），销售额达到 30 亿美元。</p>
<p>尽管 Barnes &amp; Noble 面临与 Waterstones 相同的阅读人数下降问题，但佛罗里达大学在 8 月份的一项研究发现，过去 20 年中，享受阅读的美国人数量下降了 40%。</p>
<p>官方账目显示，截至 5 月 3 日的 12 个月内，Waterstones 的销售额上升至 5.656 亿英镑，而一年前为 5.284 亿英镑。该公司在这一年中实现了 4000 万英镑的税前利润。</p>
<p>Daunt 表示，2025 年将是 “对我们来说的一个美好年份”，美国和英国的业务都在向新领域扩展。</p>
<p>Barnes &amp; Noble 开设了 67 家新店，而 Waterstones 每年增加约 10 家新店，尽管由于其已经非常成熟，扩张变得更加困难。</p>
<p>自 2011 年起管理 Waterstones，自 2018 年起管理 Barnes &amp; Noble 的 Daunt 将他的成功归因于 “建立原则并推动事物朝着你想要的方向发展”。</p>
<p>“我们只是简单地试图让商店里的顾客体验更轻松、更好，” 他曾告诉《每日电讯报》。</p>
<p>这包括标准化培训指南以培训员工，并给予经理 “在书籍重新订购和摆放方面的完全自主权”。这使他们能够更容易地响应当地读者的口味。</p>
<p>Waterstones 和 Barnes &amp; Noble 看似健康，但说服投资者在其上市时购买该业务可能并不那么简单。</p>
<p>投资者曾因过去在伦敦上市的私募股权支持公司而遭受损失。金融界的老手们仍然对 2021 年的一批企业感到遗憾——这一组企业表现惨淡。</p>
<p>在线家具公司 Made.com 最终破产，Dr Martens 的股价崩溃，如今的市值约为其上市价格的五分之一，而 Deliveroo 则经历了历史上最糟糕的首次亮相，首日交易中股价暴跌 30%。</p>
<p>自那以来，伦敦的零售首次亮相非常少。</p>
<p>投资者将对 Elliott 及其顾问可能高估公司的情况保持警惕，特别是如果销售增长似乎主要来自新店开张而非市场增长。</p>
<p>Panmure Liberum 的分析师 Anubhav Malhotra 表示，投资者非常清楚 “过去的 IPO 表现不佳”。因此，伦敦的估值普遍下降，尤其是在零售股票中。</p>
<p>接近 Waterstones 的消息人士淡化了这些挑战，并指出在伦敦市场上有许多零售商表现良好，例如 Next 和 M&amp;S。他们认为这两家连锁店还有很多未开发的市场空间。</p>
<p>此外，尽管整体阅读可能在下降，但在某些群体中仍然非常受欢迎。</p>
<p>Waterstones 最近表示，它受益于对 “浪漫奇幻” 小说的需求增长——这种小说在口语中被称为 “童话色情”。</p>
<p>这些关于女主角被骑士和巫师追求的奇幻故事在英国女性中获得了大量粉丝。</p>
<p>《荆棘之冠与玫瑰》的作者 Sarah J Maas 在全球售出了超过 7500 万本书。出版商 Bloomsbury 表示，Maas 书籍的需求帮助其实现了历史上最高的上半年销售和收益。</p>
<p>据悉，Elliott 计划在市场首次亮相后，继续作为合并后的书店业务的最大股东一段时间，这可能会让新投资者对其未来更加有信心。</p>
<p>一位银行消息人士表示，现在是 Elliott 启动 Waterstones 上市流程并实现投资回报的好时机。</p>
<p>“一切都糟透了，” 他们说。“但这不会很快改变，私募股权的回报如此之少，如果他们能做到，可能应该这样做。”</p>
<p>对于 Daunt 来说，他的重点仍然是日常运营。在过去的一周里，他一直在美国西海岸旅行，拜访 Barnes &amp; Noble 的商店。尽管美国和英国的读者人数都在下降，Daunt 表示商店依然蓬勃发展。</p>
<p>“目前书店业务非常活跃，” 他说。</p>
<p>不久他将发现投资者是否同意这一观点。</p>

BNED.RTS

<p>英国最大的书商 Waterstones 正在准备进行数十亿英镑的股票市场上市，尽管公众阅读量有所下降。尽管调查显示阅读人数减少，Waterstones 报告称销售额增长至 5.656 亿英镑，税前利润为 4000 万英镑。首席执行官 James Daunt 将成功归因于适应当地口味和扩展业务，Waterstones 和 Barnes & Noble 均在开设新店。然而，由于市场上类似公司的过去表现不佳，投资者信心可能会谨慎</p>

<p>Across Britain, fewer and fewer people are reading books. The data are plain as day.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在英国，越来越少的人在阅读书籍。数据清晰明了。</p>
</div><p>The number of children who read outside of school every day has halved over the past two decades, while the number of children who say they enjoy reading in their spare time is down by 36pc.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>过去二十年，每天在校外阅读的儿童数量减半，而表示在闲暇时间喜欢阅读的儿童数量下降了 36%。</p>
</div><p>Among adults, reading numbers are also in freefall. In a YouGov survey last year, two in five people said they had not read or listened to a book in the past year – compared with around a quarter of adults in 2001.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在成年人中，阅读人数也在急剧下降。在去年的 YouGov 调查中，五分之二的人表示他们在过去一年中没有阅读或听过书籍——而在 2001 年，这一比例约为四分之一。</p>
</div><p>For Waterstones, figures such as these would be expected to raise alarm bells. With the high street in crisis, you would think the decline of reading would put businesses such as Waterstones next in line to face the chop.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>对于 Waterstones 来说，这样的数据本应引发警报。考虑到高街危机，你可能会认为阅读的下降会使 Waterstones 等企业面临被裁员的风险。</p>
</div><p>Yet the mood is anything but sombre at Britain’s biggest bookseller. In fact, Waterstones’ owners are so confident in the business that they are gearing up for a multibillion-pound stock market listing, with a float expected as soon as this summer.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>然而，英国最大的书商 Waterstones 的气氛却完全不是这样。事实上，Waterstones 的所有者对业务充满信心，正准备进行数十亿英镑的上市，预计最早将在这个夏天进行。</p>
</div><p>This month, it emerged that Elliott Advisors, the company’s owner, had lined up advisors at Rothschild to work on the process.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>本月，有消息称，公司的所有者 Elliott Advisors 已安排 Rothschild 的顾问来处理这一过程。</p>
</div><p>The private equity group is preparing to list both Waterstones and its US cousin Barnes &amp; Noble together as one business.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这家私募股权集团正准备将 Waterstones 和其美国兄弟公司 Barnes &amp; Noble 一起上市，作为一个整体业务。</p>
</div><p>In a sign of just how well Waterstones appears to be doing, Elliott is understood to be leaning towards the London Stock Exchange for a debut of the combined company.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>从 Waterstones 的表现来看，Elliott 被认为倾向于选择伦敦证券交易所进行合并公司的首次亮相。</p>
</div><p>James Daunt, the bookseller’s lauded chief executive who also runs Barnes &amp; Noble, is himself a Briton.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>James Daunt，这位备受赞誉的书商首席执行官，同时也负责 Barnes &amp; Noble，他本人是英国人。</p>
</div><p>Daunt has previously described a stock market float of the company as “inevitable”. Banks are expected to be hired in the coming weeks. Elliott has so far declined to comment on the process.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Daunt 曾表示，公司上市是 “不可避免的”。预计在接下来的几周内将聘请银行。Elliott 迄今为止拒绝对此过程发表评论。</p>
</div><p>All this begs the question: why is Elliott so confident in Waterstones when more and more of us are giving up on books?</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>所有这些都引发了一个问题：当越来越多的人放弃书籍时，Elliott 为何对 Waterstones 如此有信心？</p>
</div><p>Daunt insists that book sales remain strong, even if it is a smaller pool of people who are buying.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Daunt 坚称，尽管购买书籍的人群较小，但书籍销售依然强劲。</p>
</div><p>“Stories of declines in reading evidently do not correlate to book buying,” he says. “Publishers and independent booksellers, as well as ourselves, are all doing well in both the US and the UK.”</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>“阅读下降的故事显然与书籍购买没有相关性，” 他说。“出版商和独立书商，以及我们自己，在美国和英国都表现良好。”</p>
</div><p>The figures back him up. The number of independent booksellers across the UK rose slightly last year, even as the high street was struck by a series of retail collapses and store closures.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>数据支持了他的观点。尽管高街遭遇了一系列零售崩溃和商店关闭，英国独立书商的数量去年略有上升。</p>
</div><p>Between them, Barnes &amp; Noble and Waterstones made a profit of $400m (£300m) last year, with sales standing at $3bn.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Barnes &amp; Noble 和 Waterstones 去年共盈利 4 亿美元（3 亿英镑），销售额达到 30 亿美元。</p>
</div><p>That is despite Barnes &amp; Noble facing the same problem with declining reading numbers as Waterstones. A study by the University of Florida in August found that the number of Americans reading for pleasure had plunged by 40pc over the past 20 years.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>尽管 Barnes &amp; Noble 面临与 Waterstones 相同的阅读人数下降问题，但佛罗里达大学在 8 月份的一项研究发现，过去 20 年中，享受阅读的美国人数量下降了 40%。</p>
</div><p>Official accounts show that Waterstones’ sales rose to £565.6m for the 12 months to May 3, compared with £528.4m a year earlier, according to documents published on Companies House this week. It made pre-tax profits of £40m for the year.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>官方账目显示，截至 5 月 3 日的 12 个月内，Waterstones 的销售额上升至 5.656 亿英镑，而一年前为 5.284 亿英镑。该公司在这一年中实现了 4000 万英镑的税前利润。</p>
</div><p>Daunt, who runs both booksellers, described 2025 as a “fantastic year for us”, with both the US and UK businesses expanding into new areas.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Daunt 表示，2025 年将是 “对我们来说的一个美好年份”，美国和英国的业务都在向新领域扩展。</p>
</div><p>Barnes &amp; Noble opened 67 new stores while Waterstone is adding around 10 new shops a year, even though expansion is harder given it is so well-established.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Barnes &amp; Noble 开设了 67 家新店，而 Waterstones 每年增加约 10 家新店，尽管由于其已经非常成熟，扩张变得更加困难。</p>
</div><p>Daunt – who has run Waterstones since 2011 and Barnes &amp; Noble since 2018 – puts his success down to “establishing principles and nudging things in the direction you want it to go”.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>自 2011 年起管理 Waterstones，自 2018 年起管理 Barnes &amp; Noble 的 Daunt 将他的成功归因于 “建立原则并推动事物朝着你想要的方向发展”。</p>
</div><p>“We’re just simply trying to make it easier and better for the people in the shops,” he previously told The Telegraph.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>“我们只是简单地试图让商店里的顾客体验更轻松、更好，” 他曾告诉《每日电讯报》。</p>
</div><p>This includes standardising guides to train up staff and giving managers “complete autonomy in terms of reordering of books and placement of books”. This allows them to more easily respond to the tastes of local readers.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这包括标准化培训指南以培训员工，并给予经理 “在书籍重新订购和摆放方面的完全自主权”。这使他们能够更容易地响应当地读者的口味。</p>
</div><p>Waterstones and Barnes &amp; Noble may appear to be in rude health – but convincing investors to buy into the business when it joins the stock market may not be so straightforward.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Waterstones 和 Barnes &amp; Noble 看似健康，但说服投资者在其上市时购买该业务可能并不那么简单。</p>
</div><p>Investors have been burned by private equity-backed companies that listed in London in the past. City veterans still talk ruefully about the class of 2021 – a group of businesses that performed hideously.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>投资者曾因过去在伦敦上市的私募股权支持公司而遭受损失。金融界的老手们仍然对 2021 年的一批企业感到遗憾——这一组企业表现惨淡。</p>
</div><p>Online furniture business Made.com ultimately collapsed into administration, Dr Martens suffered a share price collapse and is today worth around a fifth of its float price and Deliveroo endured the worst debut in history, with shares tumbling as much as 30pc on the first day of trading.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在线家具公司 Made.com 最终破产，Dr Martens 的股价崩溃，如今的市值约为其上市价格的五分之一，而 Deliveroo 则经历了历史上最糟糕的首次亮相，首日交易中股价暴跌 30%。</p>
</div><p>London has seen very few new retail debuts on the stock market in the years since.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>自那以来，伦敦的零售首次亮相非常少。</p>
</div><p>Investors will be wary of Elliott and its advisers overvaluing the company, particularly if it appears that much of the sales growth is coming from store openings rather than a growing market.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>投资者将对 Elliott 及其顾问可能高估公司的情况保持警惕，特别是如果销售增长似乎主要来自新店开张而非市场增长。</p>
</div><p>Anubhav Malhotra, a Panmure Liberum analyst, says investors are very aware that “past IPOs haven’t worked out too well”. Valuations have come down “across the board” in London as a result, especially among retail stocks.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Panmure Liberum 的分析师 Anubhav Malhotra 表示，投资者非常清楚 “过去的 IPO 表现不佳”。因此，伦敦的估值普遍下降，尤其是在零售股票中。</p>
</div><p>Sources close to Waterstones downplay these challenges and point to the fact that there are plenty of retailers doing well on the London market, such as Next and M&amp;S. They argue that there is room for growth with plenty of territory yet to be conquered by both chains.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>接近 Waterstones 的消息人士淡化了这些挑战，并指出在伦敦市场上有许多零售商表现良好，例如 Next 和 M&amp;S。他们认为这两家连锁店还有很多未开发的市场空间。</p>
</div><p>Also, while reading may be declining overall, it continues to be hugely popular among certain groups.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>此外，尽管整体阅读可能在下降，但在某些群体中仍然非常受欢迎。</p>
</div><p>Waterstones recently said it had been boosted by growing demand for “romantasy” novels – known colloquially as fairy porn.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>Waterstones 最近表示，它受益于对 “浪漫奇幻” 小说的需求增长——这种小说在口语中被称为 “童话色情”。</p>
</div><p>These fantastical tales of heroines being swept off their feet by knights and wizards have gained huge numbers of fans among British women.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这些关于女主角被骑士和巫师追求的奇幻故事在英国女性中获得了大量粉丝。</p>
</div><p>Sarah J Maas, author of romantasy novel A Court of Thorns and Roses, has sold more than 75 million copies of her books globally. Publisher Bloomsbury said demand for Maas’s books helped it to the highest first-half sales and earnings in its history last year.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>《荆棘之冠与玫瑰》的作者 Sarah J Maas 在全球售出了超过 7500 万本书。出版商 Bloomsbury 表示，Maas 书籍的需求帮助其实现了历史上最高的上半年销售和收益。</p>
</div><p>Elliott is understood to be planning to remain as the biggest shareholder in the combined bookselling business for some time following the market debut, which may give new investors more confidence in its future.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>据悉，Elliott 计划在市场首次亮相后，继续作为合并后的书店业务的最大股东一段时间，这可能会让新投资者对其未来更加有信心。</p>
</div><p>One banking source suggested now was as good a time as any for Elliott to kick off the process of listing Waterstones on the stock market and realising some return on its investment.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>一位银行消息人士表示，现在是 Elliott 启动 Waterstones 上市流程并实现投资回报的好时机。</p>
</div><p>“Everything is a bit s--t,” they said. “But that’s not going to change anytime soon and there have been so few returns back on private equity that if they can, they probably should.”</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>“一切都糟透了，” 他们说。“但这不会很快改变，私募股权的回报如此之少，如果他们能做到，可能应该这样做。”</p>
</div><p>For Daunt, his focus continues to be on the day-to-day. Over the past week, he has been travelling down the west coast of the US to visit Barnes &amp; Noble shops. Despite falling reader numbers across both the US and UK, Daunt says stores are thriving.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>对于 Daunt 来说，他的重点仍然是日常运营。在过去的一周里，他一直在美国西海岸旅行，拜访 Barnes &amp; Noble 的商店。尽管美国和英国的读者人数都在下降，Daunt 表示商店依然蓬勃发展。</p>
</div><p>“Bookselling is presently vibrant,” he says.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>“目前书店业务非常活跃，” 他说。</p>
</div><p>Soon he will find out if investors agree.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>不久他将发现投资者是否同意这一观点。</p>
</div>

尽管图书阅读量在下降，Waterstones 为何还能实现增长？