Press Release: Miscellaneous Announcements
Bloomsbury Publishing Interim Results
Posted at 7:00AM Thursday 26 Aug 2010
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc today announces interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2010.Financial Highlights: Growth in profit before investment income, finance costs, tax and amortisation of intangible assets to £1.3m (2009, £1.2m) Investment income £0.2m (2009, £0.8m) – The high level of investment income in 2009 reflected the extremely favourable rates achieved on fixed term deposits in 2008 before interest rates fell to their current levels Basic earnings per share 0.89 pence (2009, 1.70 pence) Interim dividend up 4.0% to 0.81p per share (2009, 0.78p) Cash balance of £33.5m (31 December 2009, £35.0m) Operating Highlights: Good sales for the period driven by Operation Mincemeat, The Graveyard Book, Alex's Adventures in Numberland and The Berg Encyclopedia of Fashion and Costume Management strengthened by appointment of Sarah Jane Thomson as Non-Executive Director, Evan Schnittman as Managing Director Group Sales and Marketing and Philip Roeder as Managing Director of Berlin Verlag Pipeline of releases from the traditionally stronger second half include re-launch of the Harry Potter series in November with new jackets, coinciding with film release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Eat, Pray, Love to tie in the Julia Roberts's film, the repackaged Wombles series; Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage series and Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question, which has been longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize Signed contract to digitise and publish Sir Winston Churchill's papers in electronic form Launch of Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing's first Arabic list on behalf of Qatar Foundation Commenting on the results and prospects for Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, said: "Bloomsbury has delivered an improved operational performance over the period with revenue, EBITA and cash generation ahead of the prior period. The industry is experiencing exciting and unprecedented growth in digital publishing. We have set about positioning ourselves to exploit the new opportunities whilst continuing to focus on our core strength of publishing books of quality."
Results in detail at bloomsbury.com
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