Publishing group Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LON:BMY) is trading in line this financial year, with half-year adjusted profits before tax ahead of last year.
Adjusted profit before tax in the six months to the end of August rose 13% tp £2.9mln from £2.5mln the year before on revenues that grew 4% to £75.3mln from £72.1mln in 2017.
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The consumer division’s revenues rose 22%, driven by a strong performance by the Adult Trade division. In Children’s Trade, sales of the Harry Potter series rose by 5% year-on-year.
“New strong titles for the second half include Fresh Start by Tom Kerridge, Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas, the illustrated version of The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K Rowling and two new books from Peter Frankopan, The Illustrated Silk Roads and The New Silk Roads,” said Nigel Newton, the chief executive officer of Bloomsbury.
"Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians."
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell #KillerFirstLines pic.twitter.com/5jC6KJkLcl
— Bloomsbury UK (@BloomsburyBooks) October 22, 2018
In the non-consumer division, the Academic & Professional division saw revenue growth of 9%. Bloomsbury's Digital Resources 2020 initiative, which is focused on the business-to-business (B2B) Academic & Professional market, saw digital resource revenues rise 13% on a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of changing over to the IFRS15 accounting standard.
The group announced today that its Bloomsbury Professional division has agreed a “significant seven-figure deal” with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).
The agreement spans five years and provides all employees of eligible ICAEW firms with full access to Bloomsbury's online tax and accountancy service.
"Collaborating with ICAEW to provide content is a key initiative for us. Our practitioner content is widely recognised as being core to the tax and accountancy market," said Greg Kilminster, the managing director of Bloomsbury Professional.
The chief executive, Nigel Newton, said the ICAEW deal demonstrated the opportunities to make money from its professional content on new digital platforms.
Reported profit before tax, which includes amortisation adjustments and exceptional costs relating to the acquisition of IB Tauris (IBT), eased to £1.6mln from £1.7mln the previous year.
READ: Bloomsbury Publishing strengthens academic arm with IB Tauris acquisition
The group ended the reporting period with cash of £16.9mln, unchanged from a year earlier, reflecting the earlier payment this year of the final dividend in respect of fiscal 2017/18 (last year, the interim dividend was paid in the second half of the financial year).
The board has declared an interim dividend of 1.21p this time around, a 5% increase on last year’s 1.15p interim divi.
“Each of our territories achieved growth, and the Adult trade division delivered an outstanding performance, increasing revenues by 22%, as part of the turnaround we have been working towards in that division,” Newton said.
“We have made very good progress in all seven of our Bigger Bloomsbury initiatives focusing on our key growth drivers with targeted strategies across the group to help grow our revenues and improve our margins over the next five years,” he added.