TRADING UPDATE
- 14 February 2024
Revenue and profit
significantly ahead of upgraded expectations. New Bloomsbury US
President appointed.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE:
BMY), the leading independent publisher, is pleased to announce the
following update on trading.
Full year outlook
Ø Revenue
and profit before taxation and highlighted items are now expected
to be significantly ahead of upgraded market expectations for the
year ending 29 February 2024.
Ø The Board
considers that the consensus market expectation for the year ending
29 February 2024 is currently revenue of £291.4 million and profit
before taxation and highlighted items of £37.2 million.
Highlights
Ø The
Consumer division has delivered exceptional growth driven in part
by the publication on 30th January of Sarah J. Maas novel
House of Flame and Shadow
which reached Number 1 in the US, UK, Australia and many markets
around the world.
Ø The
publication of her latest novel has also driven demand for her
previous 15 books which Bloomsbury has published throughout the
world in the English language. Bloomsbury has a further 6 titles
under contract with Sarah J. Maas.
Ø Fantasy has become extremely popular
around the world. According to Nielsen Bookscan, in the UK the
Fantasy and Sci-Fi genre has grown by 54% in the last five
years. Bloomsbury publishes Sarah J. Maas and also fantasy
bestselling author Samantha Shannon, Women's Prize winner Susanna
Clarke, the iconic Alan Moore, and Cixin Liu, whose Three Body
Problem trilogy film adaptation is being released with huge fanfare
by Netflix on March 21st, produced by Game of Thrones'
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Ø Bloomsbury
is investing further in fantasy writing on the newly launched
Bloomsbury General list.
Ø Other
important recent bestsellers are:
· Ghosts, the bestselling
companion book to the BBC smash hit television series,
· Poppy Cooks: The Actually
Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook by
Poppy O'Toole,
· Pub
Kitchen by Tom Kerridge,
· The House of
Doors by Tan Twan Eng in the
US,
· The Harry Potter
Wizarding Almanac, the official companion to J.K.
Rowling's books,
· We're Going on a Sleigh
Ride by
Martha Mumford and Cherie Zamazing and
· Impossible
Creatures by Katherine Rundell;
a Number 1 bestseller in the UK market and chosen as The
Waterstones Book of the Year 2023.
Ø Bloomsbury
has appointed Sabrina McCarthy President of Bloomsbury US, starting
at the beginning of April. She will also serve on Bloomsbury's
global Executive Committee. McCarthy brings experience of general
and academic publishing, joining from Ingram Publisher Services
where she is Vice President and General Manager. Over the last
eight years, she has overseen six distribution brands as well as
the domestic, international print and digital sales teams, and the
business operations team.
Nigel Newton, Chief Executive,
commented: "I am overjoyed to report an exceptionally strong period
of trading, principally driven by the increasing demand for fantasy
fiction. Sarah J. Maas is a publishing
phenomenon and we are very fortunate to have signed her up with her
first book 13 years ago. Her books have a huge audience which
continues to grow backed by major Bloomsbury promotional campaigns,
driving strong word of mouth recommendation, particularly through
TikTok and Instagram channels."
The Company will provide further
details for the year ended 29 February 2024 with its preliminary
results announcement on 23 May 2024.
For
further information, please contact:
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
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.