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(Alliance News) - Shares in Bloomsbury Publishing PLC rose on Wednesday as its annual results showed an increase in profit and revenue, plus the company declared a special dividend.
Bloomsbury shares were up 13% at 349.00 pence each in London in afternoon trading.
The London-based publisher hailed the popularity of reading as a "ray of sunshine" during a "very dark year" brought about by the pandemic.
The London-based publishing house has completed its acquisition of independent fiction publisher Head of Zeus Ltd for GBP8.5 million, it said on Wednesday. Head of Zeus saw revenue of GBP8.6 million and pretax profit of GBP300,000 in 2020, with net assets of GBP4.6 million at the time of the acquisition.
Bloomsbury will pay GBP5.5 million in cash upon the completion of the sale. The remaining payments will be dependent on Head of Zeus' working capital, revenue, profit and targets for the release of Netflix Inc's adaptation of Cixin Liu's bestselling science fiction trilogy, The Three-Body Problem.
Bloomsbury said that the acquisition will support its Consumer division by adding a range of authors to its roster. The acquisition gives Bloomsbury rights across all publishing formats, including e-books and audiobooks.
For the financial year ended February 28, pretax profit was up 31% to GBP17.3 million from GBP13.2 million the year before, on revenue of GBP185.1 million, up 14% from GBP162.8 million.
In response, Bloomsbury declared a total dividend of 8.86 pence per share, an 8% increase on the 8.17p the year before. It also proposed a special dividend of 9.78p.
In the coming year, Bloomsbury expects to achieve revenue ahead of the wider market and profit "comfortably ahead" of competition. The publisher puts those financial expectations for 2022 at pretax profit before highlighted items of GBP17.4 million compared to GBP19.2 million in the 2021 financial year on revenue of GBP177.5 million.
Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury, said: "Considering the ongoing momentum and strength of our business, Bloomsbury expects revenue to be ahead and profit to be comfortably ahead of market expectations" in the new financial year.
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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