Regulatory announcements

Strong year end for Bloomsbury - Trading ahead of consensus expectations

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY), the leading independent publisher, today announces its trading update for the full year ended 28 February 2025.

Bloomsbury’s trading for the year ended 28 February 2025 is ahead of consensus expectations* following a strong performance in the second half. Success within the Consumer division was broadly based across our portfolio. The acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield in May 2024, where integration is progressing very well, drove growth in the Non-Consumer division. Bloomsbury Digital Resources grew for the full year despite the budgetary pressures, highlighted at the interim results, in our core academic markets.

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’s robust performance is powerfully driven by determined execution of the Bloomsbury 2030 vision, focused on our growth, portfolio and people. Our authors, customers, consistent performance, and the scale and resilience of our business continue to underpin the confidence we have in the future. We will provide further details on trading and outlook with our Preliminary Results announcement on 22 May 2025.

Board Appointment

Bloomsbury is pleased to announce the appointment of Dame Heather Rabbatts to its Board as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 14 April 2025 and who will become a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees. She is the Senior Independent Director at Associated British Foods plc and M&C Saatchi Group PLC and was formerly a Non-Executive Director at Kier Group plc. **

* The Board considers consensus market expectation for the year ending 28 February 2025 prior to this announcement to be revenue of £333.4m and profit before taxation and highlighted items of £39.6m.

** No further disclosures are required under paragraph UKLR 6.4.8R of the UK Listing Rules. 

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Disclaimer

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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