Regulatory announcements

Sales growth of 27% for the first four months

Bloomsbury announces its trading update for the four months ended 30 June 2022, ahead of the Company’s Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) at 12.00pm today.

Bloomsbury experienced strong trading for the first four months of its financial year, with year-on-year sales growth of 27%, demonstrating resilience and maintaining momentum from the prior year’s outstanding performance.

Trading

Consumer bestsellers in the period included Paul Hollywood’s Bake, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and Sarah J. Maas’ titles. In the UK, according to Nielsen BookScan, Sarah J. Maas has sold just over one million print books to date. Sarah J. Maas is also one of the most popular authors on TikTok.

Non-Consumer division growth was driven by continued strong demand for Bloomsbury Digital Resources.

Outlook

Bloomsbury had a strong performance for the first four months of the year, trading in line with market expectations*.

The first half of 2022 has seen record UK consumer book sales, reported by Nielsen**, supporting the view that increased reading is here to stay.

Bloomsbury was voted Company of the Year at the Master Investor Awards on 30 June 2022.

The Board is confident in Bloomsbury’s ability to deliver continued success, given the strength and resilience of our proven strategy, combined with our strong financial position which enables us to invest in continued organic growth and further acquisition opportunities.

The results for the six months ending 31 August 2022 will be announced on 26 October 2022.

* The Board considers current consensus market expectation for the year ending 28 February 2023 to be revenue of £242.6 million and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £26.9 million.

 ** UK Nielsen BookScan reported Total Consumer Market sales for the first 26 weeks of 2022 up 3% on 2008, the previous first-half leader.

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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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