Wizards still working their magic for Bloomsbury

Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011 22:19

RESURGENT Potter-mania and the growth of downloadable summer reading has resulted in a boost to sales for Bloomsbury, the publisher said yesterday.

The group noted a "significant improvement" in sales throughout July and early August, due in part to strong e-book performance during the holiday season.

High street sales were also good, the publisher said, bolstered by the film release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two.

The final movie instalment of the boy wizard's adventures resulted in a surge in sales for all seven books in the series.

At Bloomsbury's AGM yesterday, chief executive Nigel Newton highlighted other recent successes for the group, including Frank Dikotter's Mao's Great Famine, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction.

Stephen Kelman's Pigeon English has been included on the long-list for the prestigious Man Booker prize. Bloomsbury edition sales of last year's winner, Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question, have now topped 700,000 worldwide, the publisher said.

The encouraging words from the publisher's chief executive come a month after the company warned that it remained cautious over current trading due to "difficult prevailing conditions".

At the AGM, Newton announced details of a new deal with legal know-how firm Practical Law Company. Under the agreement, Bloomsbury will provide data to the desk tops of major law firms and corporate legal departments, Newton said.

"The deal with Practical Law Company is another example of our ability to benefit from a significant and growing presence in the academic and professional market which will bring us more consistent and stable earnings," Newton said.

The latest tie-up follows news last month of Bloomsbury's acquisition of Continuum, an academic publisher specialising in theology and philosophy.The 20.1 million purchase was described yesterday by Newton as a "transformational deal" for the publisher.

Based in London and New York, Continuum has an academic list that dates back more than 170 years with authors including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.

In a statement released to the stock exchange yesterday, Bloomsbury revealed that 37.6 per cent of votes had been cast against its directors' renumeration report, making it the latest company to face a shareholder rebellion over bosses' pay during the current season of AGMs.

Last month nearly 43 per cent of votes cast at Aberdeen-based transport giant FirstGroup's AGM were against the renumeration report, which included a "golden hello" for chief executive Tim O'Toole, who replaced founder Sir Moir Lochhead in November.

Voters holding 10 per cent of luxury goods group Burberry's stock also rejected "excessive" executive pay last month.

In May, investors representing 20 per cent of banking giant HSBC's stock refused to back the report on directors' remuneration.