TIDMBMY
RNS Number : 9752S
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
15 March 2023
BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
("Bloomsbury" or "the Company")
Trading Update
Revenue comfortably ahead and profit materially ahead of
expectations
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY), the leading independent
publisher, today announces a year-end trading update for the 12
months ending 28 February 2023.
Revenue is now expected to be over GBP260 million and profit
before taxation and highlighted items is expected to be some GBP30
million for the year ended 28 February 2023.* This follows strong
trading at the end of the year.
Commenting on the results, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of
Bloomsbury, said:
"Bloomsbury's unique position in combining consumer and academic
publishing combined with our investment in high quality content and
company acquisitions has enabled us to achieve excellent trading
for the year. We have seen strong demand for our titles - in print,
ebook and audio - and continued digital growth. Two of our
strongest performances in the year have come from very disparate
ends of our publishing strategy - fantasy novels on the one hand
and academic digital resources on the other - showing how well our
balanced consumer and academic portfolio is working in
practice.
Throughout a year which has been characterised by rising
inflation and cost of living pressure, it is notable that reading
remains hugely popular throughout the world with books regarded by
many readers as an affordable pastime."
Consumer
Strong trading in the Consumer division was driven by both
frontlist and core backlist titles. Samantha Shannon's new novel, A
Day of Fallen Night was published in February 2023 and became an
instant bestseller worldwide. Other bestsellers included Johan
Hari's Stolen Focus and BAKE by Paul Hollywood. Strong backlist
sales continued, in particular for Sarah J. Maas, as well as The
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller and Dishoom: From Bombay with Love by Shamil
Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar and Naved Nasir.
On 11 March 2023, Peter Frankopan's new title The Earth
Transformed reached number two in the Sunday Times bestseller
lists, and Samantha Shannon's A Day of Fallen Night reached number
one in the Sunday Times and number three in the New York Times
bestseller lists.
We are particularly pleased to announce the signing this week of
a further four book contract with Sarah J. Maas, on top of the
three future books already under contract.
Non-Consumer
We achieved strong growth in Bloomsbury Digital Resources
through leveraging our acquisition of ABC-CLIO and continued
organic growth. ABC-CLIO brought to Bloomsbury a portfolio of
digital academic resources, with a major presence in the US high
school library market, and opportunities for accessing wider,
international markets with their products. We are encouraged by the
pipeline of further cross-selling and growth opportunities from
ABC-CLIO. We have launched a new platform for our academic
streaming content, Bloomsbury Video Library, with more than 2,000
films spanning a vast range of subjects.
We will provide further details about the year ending 28
February 2023 with our preliminary results announcement.
* The Board considers current consensus market expectations for
the year ending 28 February 2023 to be revenue of GBP242.6 million
and profit before taxation and highlighted items of GBP26.9
million.
For further information, please contact:
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Nigel Newton, Chief Executive nigel.newton@bloomsbury.com
Penny Scott-Bayfield, Group penny.scott-bayfield@bloomsbury.com
Finance Director
Hudson Sandler +44 (0) 20 7796 4133
Dan de Belder / Amelia Craddock bloomsbury@hudsonsandler.com
/ Emily Booker
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Group to constitute inside information as stipulated under the
Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the
publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information
Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in
the public domain.
The information in this announcement has not been audited or
otherwise independently verified and no representation or warranty,
express or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed
on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the
information or opinions contained herein. None of the Company or
any of its affiliates, advisors or representatives shall have any
liability whatsoever (in negligence or otherwise) for any loss
whatsoever arising from any use of this announcement, or its
contents, or otherwise arising in connection with this
announcement.
This announcement does not constitute or form part of any offer
or invitation to sell, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase
any shares in the Company, nor shall it or any part of it or the
fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in
connection with, any contract or commitment or investment decisions
relating thereto, nor does it constitute a recommendation regarding
the shares of the Company.
Certain statements, statistics and projections in this
announcement are or may be forward looking. By their nature,
forward--looking statements involve a number of risks,
uncertainties or assumptions that may or may not occur and actual
results or events may differ materially from those expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no
assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met
and reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement.
Accordingly, forward-looking statements contained in this
announcement regarding past trends or activities should not be
taken as representation that such trends or activities will
continue in the future. You should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements, which are based on the knowledge and
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current the information contained in this announcement, including
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which may become apparent and any opinions expressed in it are
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