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LONDON (Alliance News) - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC said Thursday its revenue in the first quarter to end-May was down 9% compared to the previous year, due to a weaker performance from its adult division.
The company saw growth in its academic and professional, children's and education divisions, but the adult division declined in comparison to the previous-year quarter, which Bloomsbury said had seen "exceptional success" with some books.
Best selling titles included Khaled Hosseini's 'And the Mountains Echoed' and Roz Ghast's 'Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?' in the adult division, and J.K Rowling's Harry Potter Box Set and John Green's 'Paper Towns' in children's and education.
Digital sales made up 12% of the company's total revenue for the period, up from 11%.
The company noted that the quarter traditionally generates its smallest profits of the year.
In the academic and professional division, Bloomsbury plans to launch online e-book collections for libraries, Bloomsbury Collections, in September. It launched its online information resource IZA World of Labor in May.
Bloomsbury said that the development of its online knowledge hubs is now a core part of its business as a result of the growing digital market, which means it has increased its investment in these platforms.
As a result, it has opted to include the amortisation of product and system development assets into its pretax profit, excluding highlighted items going forward. This will not affect its pretax profit or cash, but will mean its results for the previous fiscal year will be restated to reduce pretax profit excluding highlighted items by GBP1.0 million.
As at June 30 the company had net cash of GBP2.9 million, down from GBP8.5 million, due to acquisition costs.
"We remain well positioned to benefit from a strong publishing programme, including powerful new titles from Margaret Atwood, Paul Hollywood and Tom Kerridge later this year," said Chief Executive Nigel Newton in a statement.
Shares in Bloomsbury were trading down 5.1% at 166.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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