Bloomsbury Publishing sees FY ahead of forecasts

Bloomsbury Publishing said full-year trading was ahead of expectations after a strong performance in the second half.

The Harry Potter publisher said success within the consumer division was broadly based across the company’s portfolio. The £65m acquisition of academic publisher Rowman & Littlefield in May last year drove growth in the non-consumer unit and its digital resources operation grew for the full year despite budgetary pressures in academic markets.

Consensus market expectations for the year to February are for revenue of £333.4m and profit before tax and highlighted items of £39.6m.

“This strong performance and the associated cash generation has enabled us to pay down $7.5m of the $37m debt associated with the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield ahead of schedule,” the company said in a trading update on Thursday.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com