MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
September 21 – September 28, 2006 Edition
Potters Publisher
Bloomsbury Posts
6.5% Sales Increase
London/9/19/06—Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, parent company for Bloomsbury USA, reported a 6.5% increase to £37.66m (2005, £35.37m) in revenues for the first six months of the year ended June 30, 2006. Pre-tax profits saw an increase of 3.4% to £4.22m (2005, £4.08m)
In its report to investors, the company said U.S. and German operations are performing well and that it is expanding into new areas of publishing within the childrens and adult divisions. The publisher said it has increased its investment in future titles by 39.4%.
Commenting on the results and prospects for Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Chairman, said: “Bloomsbury has made good progress in the first six months of 2006. Our international businesses are clearly established and performing well. The benefits of our prior investment in authors and new business initiatives are coming through as planned.”
“The Group’s publishing program for the second half of the year is one of the strongest to date and includes books from some of our bestselling authors and potential bestsellers from new authors. The second half has started well with trading in line with our expectations, and the Board remains confident of a satisfactory outcome to the year.”
Bloomsbury, which publishes the Harry Potter series, said sales for the Potter books are meeting expectations with a 3.4 percent rise in the first-half profit.
