Press releases & announcements

31st March 2009

Preliminary Results for the Year Ended 31 December 2008

2008 saw a strong performance by the Group despite difficult trading conditions.

Financial highlights

The highlights for 2008 include:

• Revenue of £99.95m (2007, £150.21m - launch of HP7)
• Pre-tax profit of £11.63m (2007, £17.86m - launch of HP7)
• Basic earnings per share of 10.67p (2007, 16.06p - launch of HP7)
• Pre-tax profit from Bloomsbury USA of £0.38m (2007, loss £1.64m)
• Strong cash generation, particularly in the UK, resulting in net cash of £51.91m (2007, £47.56m)
• Final dividend per share increased 5.2% to 3.47p (2007, 3.30p). Full year dividend per share increased by 5.5% to 4.22p (2007, 4.00p)
• Bloomsbury had the two highest selling books of the year in the Times list of Top Bestsellers of 2008 and three of the top ten. A Thousand Splendid Suns was number one, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, published by the Children's High Level Group charity was number two, and The Kite Runner was number eight.
• Strong pipeline of new releases for 2009 - New books by William Boyd, Margaret Atwood, John Irving, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Heston Blumenthal, Monty Don and Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows long-listed for the Orange Prize
• Acquisitions of John Wisden & Co, The Arden Shakespeare, Featherstone Education Limited and Berg Publishers

Operating highlights

Commenting on the results and prospects for Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, said:

"This is a strong set of results in the year following the launch of the seventh Harry Potter in 2007. Through the implementation of a robust strategy, good financial discipline and an excellent range of books at affordable prices, our business has continued to prosper even in the harshest economic conditions. Clearly no business is immune, but our focus on high-quality publishing across a broad portfolio has positioned us well for the future.

We have an excellent pipeline of new titles due for release over the coming months across all genres. However, there are also a number of risks and areas of caution which have been heightened by the recession. Visibility has been decreased by the uncertainty of the global market place, though books have fared better than most. Despite this, we are confident that we have the right strategy, as well as a great stable of authors, in place to weather these challenging market conditions."

For further information, please contact:

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
020 7494 6015

Daniel de Belder, Bell Pottinger
020 78613232

To return to the Press Releases section click here