REG - BloomsburyPublishing - AGM Trading Update

Bloomsbury PublishingAnnouncement

16/07/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 4837W  Bloomsbury Publishing PLC  16 July 2024

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC

("Bloomsbury" or "the Company")

 

AGM Trading Update

Strong trading in-line with recently upgraded expectations

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY), the leading independent publisher, today
announces its trading update for the four months ended 30 June 2024 ahead of
the Company's Annual General Meeting ("AGM") at 12.00pm today.

Bloomsbury's trading has been in line with recently upgraded expectations,
including the acquisition of Rowman and Littlefield's academic publishing
business,* following a strong performance in the first four months of its
financial year.

Consumer bestsellers in the period include:

·    Sarah J. Maas' titles across all three of her bestselling series:
Crescent City, Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses;

·    J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series;

·    Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem, which is now also a Netflix
series;

·    Stuart Turton's The Last Murder at the End of the World, a No. 1
Sunday Times Bestseller;

·    Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's How to Eat 30 Plants A Week, a No. 1
Sunday Times Bestseller;

·    Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain, accompanying the TV series; and

·    Johann Hari's Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing
Risks of the New Weight Loss Drugs.

Exciting new releases for the summer include Sally Smith's A Case of Mice and
Murder, Josephine Quinn's How the World Made the West, a Financial Times pick
for Best History Book of 2024, and Mayowa and the Sea of Words by Chibundu
Onuzo.

The Non-Consumer division included continued growth in Bloomsbury Digital
Resources (BDR). On 29 May 2024, Bloomsbury announced the transformational
acquisition of Rowman and Littlefield's academic publishing business, making
Bloomsbury a leading US academic publisher with c.97,000 titles. The enlarged
Academic business will focus on wider international sales, subject area
expansion and continued innovation in digital scholarship and learning. This
strategically important acquisition and our organic growth will accelerate BDR
from 2023/2024's revenue of £27m to our increased BDR revenue target for
2027/28 of £41m, as Bloomsbury applies its proven ability to create premium
digital content for the first time to Rowman & Littlefield's market
leading titles, expanding BDR products.

The Board is confident in the medium and long-term strategy for Consumer and
investing in Academic & Professional Publishing, with the benefits of
digital content. We continue to execute our strategy of diversification across
formats, territories and markets, reflecting our portfolio of portfolios
strategy. Our authors, customers, consistent performance and the scale and
resilience of our business continue to underpin the confidence we have in the
future.

We will provide further details about the year ending 28 February 2025 with
our Interim Results announcement.

*The Board considers current consensus market expectation for the year ending
28 February 2025 to be revenue of £319.3m and profit before taxation and
highlighted items of £37.6m.

For further information, please contact:

 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
 Tamsin Garrity, Head of Investor Relations      tamsin.garrity@bloomsbury.com
 Hudson Sandler                                  +44 (0) 20 7796 4133
 Dan de Belder / Hattie Dreyfus / Emily Brooker  bloomsbury@hudsonsandler.com

 

 Disclaimer

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 information available only at the date of
this announcement's preparation.

The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or keep current the
information contained in this announcement, including any forward‑looking
statements, or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent and any
opinions expressed in it are subject to change without notice.

References in this announcement to other reports or materials, such as a
website address, have been provided to direct the reader to other sources of
information on Bloomsbury Publishing Plc which may be of interest. Neither the
content of Bloomsbury's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks from
Bloomsbury's website nor any additional materials contained or accessible
thereon, are incorporated in, or form part of, this announcement.

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