Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LSE:BMY) chief executive Nigel Newton hailed an "exceptional" year following a 57% rise in annual profits on the back of which it is upgrading its forecasts for the current 12 months.
Its success has been driven by strong sales of titles from Sarah J Maas, Katherine Rundell and Samantha Shannon and the continued popularity of Harry Potter, 26 years on from the publication of 'The Philosopher's Stone'.
Maas, whose 16th book with Bloomsbury, 'Crescent City: House of Flame and Shadow', hit the bestseller list in January, notched an impressive 161% growth in sales that contributed to the 49% jump in revenues from Bloomsbury's consumer division.
Overall, the publisher's revenues grew 30% to £342.7 million in the 12 months ended February 29, giving pre-tax profits of £48.7 million. Investors will be rewarded with a 39.11p per share dividend, up 59% on the year earlier.
Bloomsbury told the investors revenue and profit for 2024/25 are expected to be slightly ahead of the current consensus expectations.
It exited the year with £65.8 million of cash on the balance allowing it to invest in the business, authors and employees as well as drive organic growth.
Having completed 33 acquisitions since inception, the group said it is also "actively targeting and assessing" further opportunities, particularly in academic publishing.
"Bloomsbury has a clear strategy," said CEO Newton. "Our strong cash generation and balance sheet enables us to continue investing in innovative content and authors, as well as capitalising on emerging opportunities.
"As a result of these strengths, the genius of our authors and the skill of our people worldwide at our unique combination of literary and scholarly publishing, we remain confident in Bloomsbury's ability to deliver continued success."