Koninklijke Brill NV

Earnings Release • Nov 1, 2018

PRESS RELEASE

Brill reports disappointing sales in Q3 and revises outlook for 2018

Leiden, 31 October, 2018

Brill's Q3 sales were disappointing. Especially the print book sales in Europe and Asia showed a decline of approximately 10% compared to Q3 2017 as a result of lower market demand. Also journal sales in Q3 were significantly behind last year's third quarter due to phasing of publication of journal issues. However, journal sales to date remain ahead of last year.

eBooks showed a healthy growth of almost 20% compared to Q3 2017, but this was not enough to compensate for the decline in print book sales. Therefore Brill revises its revenue outlook to a marginal decline versus last year of around 1% to 2%.

The Cost of Goods Sold in Q3 were affected by double platform costs due to delays in the delivering of the new Brill.com online platform. Operational costs increased due to higher financial support costs.

As a consequence, Brill currently expects an EBITDA level that is approximately 20% to 25% below the 2017 level.

The cost saving initiative that was launched this summer to structurally improve profit in 2019-2020 runs according to plan. On November 15th further information will be provided in Brill's regular trading update.

The Executive Committee, Peter Coebergh, Chief Executive Officer Jasmin Lange, Chief Publishing Officer

coebergh@brill.com - +31 (0)6 53 57 83 25

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, Language & 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 284 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 www.brill.com.