Bloomsbury Regulatory News (BMY)

15 Jan 2009 07:00

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

("Bloomsbury" or "the Group")

Trading Statement

Bloomsbury Publishing announces that 2008 trading was in line with management's expectations. 

 Bloomsbury published 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 number two, and The Kite Runner number eight.

 Sales were good in difficult market conditions driven by a strong publishing programme which included The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; JK Rowling's The Tales of Beedle The Bard, on behalf of her charity, The Children's High Level Group; The Snowball - Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder; The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale; The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal; Just Me by Sheila Hancock; and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Rights deals, including Qatar Finance - The Ultimate Resource and the publishing partnership with Qatar Foundation also contributed to the year. The Group made four acquisitions in 2008: Featherstone, Berg, John Wisden and The Arden Shakespeare, and launched one new division, Bloomsbury Academic.

Period-end cash for the Group is likely to be in excess of £50m. In 2009 investment income will decline in line with the decrease in the UK bank base rate. We are mindful of the impact of the uncertainty in the global economy on the book publishing market, though it is not clear at this stage what the quantum of that impact will be. A handful of customers have already closed or are in administration but books have been reasonably resilient in previous economic downturns. Over the past two years, Bloomsbury has concluded database and management licences and contracts with leading organisations which, because they are long-term in nature, will provide greater certainty of cash flow and profit stability for the Group for the next five years.  

The preliminary results for the year ended 31st December 2008 will be announced on 31st March 2009.

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Enquiries: 

Bell Pottinger - Dan de Belder / Rosanne Perry 020 7861 3232 

Notes to Editors:

About Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 

(www.bloomsbury.com and www.bloomsbury-ir.co.uk) 

Bloomsbury Publishing is one of the world's leading independent, publicly quoted publishing houses with an invaluable catalogue of authors including Margaret Atwood, Heston Blumenthal, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall David Guterson, Khaled Hosseini, John Irving, and J.K. Rowling. In addition, Bloomsbury publishes essential digital reference works, databases and information resources including Schott's Miscellanies and Almanacs, Who's Who, Whitaker's Almanack, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, Reed's Nautical Almanac, Black's Medical Dictionary, Business: The Ultimate Resource, Qatar Finance: The Ultimate Resource, The Arden Shakespeare and the Berg Fashion Library.