Bloomsbury Regulatory News (BMY)

15 Oct 2009 07:00



Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

("Bloomsbury" or "The Group")

Interim Management Statement

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc today issues its Interim Management Statement in respect of the period from 1st July 2009 to date.

Specialist Publishing Division

In July we completed the acquisition of the law and tax specialist Tottel,  now named Bloomsbury Professional, and Hodder's Higher Education textbook lists in Media and Communications, History and English Literature now part of Bloomsbury Academic. The integration of both businesses is progressing well. 

QFINANCE -The Ultimate Resource was launched in Doha this month. QFINANCE - The Ultimate Resource, published in partnership with the Qatar Financial Centre Authority, is the brand name of Qatar Finance which is a dynamic and comprehensive financial knowledge base and reference source containing contributions from approximately 300 of the world's leading financial practitioners, visionaries, writers and educators.  QFINANCE online will provide finance professionals, academics, students, journalists and writers worldwide with access to the huge breadth and depth of its content, together with compelling additional daily content updates.

We have announced plans for a major information resource for the energy industry: Energy. There is a need for a reference resource for the energy industry which, in the context of climate change, is increasingly important to governments, businesses and citizens worldwide. The project has received the backing of leading industry participants including Hermann Scheer, General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, and The Renewable Energy Foundation. Scheduled to launch in 2012, this authoritative database will give both online and in print access to all the latest information on energy.

Trade Publishing Division

As we approach the Christmas period, the Trade Publishing Division has now moved into the busiest time of the year. With major authors such as John Irving, Margaret Atwood, William Boyd, Heston Blumenthal and Ben Schott all being published in the autumn the publishing programme for the division is second-half weighted. 

Amazon has announced that its Kindle ebook reader, previously only available in the US, will be available worldwide with immediate effect. Whilst it is difficult to predict take-up this is a welcome development in the run-up to Christmas.The Kindle will offer over 200,000 English Language titles from leading publishers including Bloomsbury. 

Financial Position

Overall, trading is in line with management expectations although this is still dependent on the level of demand between now and the end of the year. Whilst we are continuing to focus on managing our cost base, we nevertheless have a strong balance sheet and are investing carefully in our future publishing programme. 

All the risks and opportunities facing the company as identified in the Outlook section of our preliminary statement of 31st March 2009 remain unaltered.

The Group's cash position at the end of September 2009 was £32.3m which was after the payment in September of royalties due to authors for the six months to 30th June 2009. 

-ends-

For further information, please contact:

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

Daniel de Belder / Rosanne Perry, Bell Pottinger 020 7861 3232