Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LSE:BMY) said profit for the year to end-February, 2022 will be ‘materially' ahead of market forecasts as recent sales came in higher than expected.
Trading continued to be strong in the Consumer division, for both Adult and Children's publishing, the publisher of Harry Potter and a string of other best sellers added.
Bloomsbury was ‘delighted’ its digital arm also hit its long-term target of achieving sales of £15mln and a £5mln profit by the end of this financial year.
“Achieving this key long-term strategic goal, building high margin, quality revenues, demonstrates the strength and successful execution of our digital strategy,” it said in a statement.
The digital business recently acquired ABC-CLIO for £17.3mln in cash and Bloomsbury said the addition of the academic and reference book publisher would accelerate the growth of its non-fiction publishing arm in North America.
Consensus forecasts before today’s update were for annual revenues of £197.1mln and profits of £20.1mln.