LONDON (Alliance News) - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC said Thursday that it had seen good trading in the four months ended December 31, 2013, as it saw strong growth in print and e-book sales, although its Rights & Services division declined.
During the period Bloomsbury saw revenue growth of 20% over the previous year, boosted by strong titles including 'The Harry Potter Box Set' from JK Rowling, 'And The Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini and 'Fortunately, the Milk ...' by Neil Gaiman.
Title revenue was up 24%, mostly generated from print sales. Digital revenue growth was 15%.
However, Rights & Services revenues were down 17%. Bloomsbury said it was renegotiating contracts in the segment, and expects to see revenue from Rights & Services between the end of the period and the end of the financial year.
The company saw good organic growth in its Academic & Professional division, and said that the integration of Hart Publishing Ltd was progressing well. Bloomsbury acquired Hart for GBP6.5 million in September. During the period Hart's revenue has been in line with expectations, Bloomsbury said.
The company is launching Bloomsbury Collections, a digital e-book platform for higher education institutions, in May 2014.
The publisher said it would have visibility of its post-Christmas results over the next six weeks, and noted that its final results would be dependent on these results as well as the completion of contracts.
Shares in Bloomsbury were trading up 2.6%, at 167.75 pence Thursday.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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