Regulatory announcements

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc today announces twelve month results for the period ended 31 December 2010.

Financial highlights

The highlights for the twelve months ended 31 December 2010 include:

• Revenue of £90.7m (2009: £87.2m)
• Adjusted pre-tax profit pre- highlighted items* of £8.4m (2009, £7.7m)
• Unadjusted pre-tax profit of £5.5m (2009, £7.1m)
• Adjusted basic earnings per share (pre-highlighted items) of 8.50p (2009, 7.56p) Basic earnings per share of 4.61p (2009, 6.77p)
• Profit from Bloomsbury USA of £1.3m before central cost recharges of £0.2m (2009, £0.5m before central cost recharges of £0.2m)
• Net cash of £34.1m (2009, £35.0m). Strong cash inflow from operating activities of £5.1m (2009, outflow £4.3m)

Second interim dividend per share of 3.91p, an increase of 7% on the 2009 final dividend of 3.65p. The intention is to announce a further dividend for the 2 month period to 28 February 2012
*Highlighted items comprise Goodwill impairment, amortisation of intangible assets, acquisition costs, aborted acquisition costs and relocation costs

Operating highlights

• Best performance ever from Bloomsbury US
• Berlin Verlag made an operating profit in the second half
• Bestsellers across the Group:
  • Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
  • The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson – winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize
  • Operation Mincemeat – Ben Macintyre
  • Berthold Beitz – Joachim Kappner

• Acquisition of Bristol Classical Press
• E-book sales have grown eighteen fold in 2010 over 2009 from $131k to $2.3m
• Appointment of two new Non Executive Directors in 2010 and new Group Finance Director in 2011
• Appointment of a Managing Director, Group Sales and Marketing, a Managing Director of new Children’s and Educational division and a new Managing Director of Berlin Verlag
• Major online initiatives including
  • Berg Fashion Library Online
  • Public Library Online in new territories
  • Professional Library Online
  • Winston Churchill Archives digitisation
  • Reeds Nautical Online

• Conception of the strategy for One Global Bloomsbury – Four Worldwide Publishing Divisions. This will be implemented on 1 March 2011 at the start of the new financial year. A&C Black, Berlin Verlag, Berg, Bloomsbury UK and Bloomsbury USA will be replaced by four new worldwide publishing divisions for Adult; Children’s and Educational; Academic and Professional; and Business Development which will be the basis of future management structure and reporting

Commenting on the results and prospects for Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, said:

"Bloomsbury had an excellent year with a number of bestselling titles and particularly buoyant sales in the final quarter. We are also benefitting from our strong position in digital publishing which continues to experience exciting and unprecedented growth. With sales of digital devices such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad growing rapidly, 2011 will clearly be the year of the e-book. Our overall trade e-book sales are currently running at just under 10% of print sales, a proportion we expect to increase as more backlist titles are added and as the UK market gains the kind of momentum being seen in the US. We believe that digital publishing creates huge opportunities for Bloomsbury and its authors. On 1 March 2011, we will be implementing a new strategic plan for One Global Bloomsbury with Four Worldwide Publishing Divisions. ”

For further information, please contact:

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
020 7494 6015

Daniel de Belder, Bell Pottinger
020 7861 3232

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