REG - BloomsburyPublishing - Trading Update

Bloomsbury PublishingAnnouncement

26/01/2022 07:05

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RNS Number : 6235Z  Bloomsbury Publishing PLC  26 January 2022

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC

("Bloomsbury" or "the Company")

 

Trading Update

 

Trading ahead of expectations

 

 

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY), the leading independent publisher, today
gives a pre-year end trading update for the 12 months ending 28 February 2022.

 

Bloomsbury is pleased to announce that revenue is expected to be comfortably
ahead and profit materially ahead of market expectations* for the year ending
28 February 2022.

 

Trading continued to be strong in the Consumer division, for both Adult and
Children's publishing.

 

A major milestone has been hit by Bloomsbury Digital Resources ("BDR"). We are
delighted to announce that on 18 January 2022, we achieved the goal announced
in May 2016 that we would create the BDR division which would generate £15
million of sales and £5 million of profit by the year ending 28 February
2022. Six years later we have done exactly that. Achieving this key long-term
strategic goal, building high margin, quality revenues, demonstrates the
strength and successful execution of our digital strategy.

 

BDR will benefit from the addition of further digital resources from the
acquisition of ABC-CLIO LLC ("ABC-CLIO"). As previously announced, Bloomsbury
completed the purchase of ABC-CLIO on 16 December 2021, for £17.3 million in
cash. ABC-CLIO is an established academic publisher of reference, nonfiction,
online curriculum and professional development materials in both print and
digital formats for schools, academic libraries and public libraries,
primarily in the USA. This acquisition is an excellent strategic fit with BDR
and significantly accelerates the growth of Bloomsbury's academic publishing
in North America.

 

We will provide an update with our preliminary results in May 2022.

 

* The Board considers that the consensus market expectation for the year
ending 28 February 2022 is currently revenue of £197.1 million and profit
before taxation and highlighted items of £20.1 million.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
 Nigel Newton, Chief Executive                 nigel.newton@bloomsbury.com (mailto:nigel.newton@bloomsbury.com)
 Penny Scott-Bayfield, Group Finance Director  penny.scott-bayfield@bloomsbury.com
                                               (mailto:penny.scott-bayfield@bloomsbury.com)
 Hudson Sandler                                +44 (0) 20 7796 4133
 Dan de Belder / Hattie Dreyfus                bloomsbury@hudsonsandler.com (mailto:bloomsbury@hudsonsandler.com)

 

 

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Group to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations
(EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via a
Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now
considered to be in the public domain.

 

The information in this announcement has not been audited or otherwise
independently verified and no representation or warranty, express or implied,
is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy,
completeness or correctness of the information or opinions contained herein.
None of the Company or any of its affiliates, advisors or representatives
shall have any liability whatsoever (in negligence or otherwise) for any loss
whatsoever arising from any use of this announcement, or its contents, or
otherwise arising in connection with this announcement.

 

This announcement does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation
to sell, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase any shares in the
Company, nor shall it or any part of it or the fact of its distribution form
the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or commitment
or investment decisions relating thereto, nor does it constitute a
recommendation regarding the shares of the Company.

 

Certain statements, statistics and projections in this announcement are or may
be forward looking. By their nature, forward‑looking statements involve a
number of risks, uncertainties or assumptions that may or may not occur and
actual results or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied
by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that
any particular expectation will be met and reliance should not be placed on
any forward-looking statement. Accordingly, forward-looking statements
contained in this announcement regarding past trends or activities should not
be taken as representation that such trends or activities will continue in the
future. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements,
which are based on the knowledge and information available only at the date of
this announcement's preparation.

 

The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or keep current the
information contained in this announcement, including any forward‑looking
statements, or to correct any inaccuracies which may become apparent and any
opinions expressed in it are subject to change without notice.

 

References in this announcement to other reports or materials, such as a
website address, have been provided to direct the reader to other sources of
information on Bloomsbury Publishing Plc which may be of interest. Neither the
content of Bloomsbury's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks from
Bloomsbury's website nor any additional materials contained or accessible
thereon, are incorporated in, or form part of, this announcement.

 

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