Unaudited Interim Results

BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC

Interim Results (Unaudited) for the six months ended 31 August 2026

Strong start to second half underpinning record expectations for 2026/27

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE: BMY, “Bloomsbury” or “the Company”), the leading independent publisher, today announces unaudited results for the six months ended 31 August 2026.

Commenting on the results, Nigel Newton, Executive Chairman, said:

“Bloomsbury is celebrating its 40th anniversary since we founded the company in September 1986. Bloomsbury has published over 200,000 titles, eight Nobel Prize winners, four Booker Prize winners and four winners of the Women’s Prize.

Bloomsbury is pleased to report first half revenue of £151.6m with profit1 of £16.8m and a strong start to the second half of the year, underpinning the Board’s confidence in delivering record results for the full year.

The Consumer Division growth is weighted to the second half with scheduled releases from many of our bestselling authors. September started with bestsellers from Gillian Anderson with More and Stephen Graham with Letters to Our Sons. We are excited to be launching two hugely anticipated new novels from Sarah J. Maas and HBO Max will launch J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series on Christmas Day, introducing the series to an expanded readership.

In the Academic & Professional Division, we are seeing good underlying growth in all territories and in both print and digital. Bloomsbury continues to benefit from ongoing AI licensing revenue in 2026/27.

In September 2026, we announced a five-year leadership succession plan providing long-term continuity and stability for Bloomsbury’s shareholders, authors and colleagues.

In recognition of the strong net cash position and our confidence in the outlook, the Board declares an interim dividend up 5% year on year to 4.28 pence.

Bloomsbury has an unbroken 31-year track record of dividend growth every year since flotation in 1994. £10,000 invested in Bloomsbury at flotation in 1994 would be worth £624,000 with dividends reinvested.

The Board looks to the current year with confidence in delivering record results in 2026/27, in line with expectations.”

Financial Highlights

Operational Highlights

Consumer Division Highlights

Academic & Professional (“A&P”) Division Highlights

Notes

Bloomsbury will be hosting a meeting for analysts and Shareholders at 9 am which is available via this link: https://sparklive.lseg.com/BloomsburyPublishing/events/6dcc8c9c-68ef-428e-92d2-4ed96d9ab87d/bloomsbury-interim-results

Executive Chairman’s Statement

Overview

Bloomsbury achieved H1 2026/27 revenue of £151.6m and Adjusted Profit of £16.8m with a margin of 11.1%. We have successfully pursued our long-term strategy of combining consumer and academic publishing which has created a portfolio of portfolios - a model that continues to provide Bloomsbury with diversification and resilient success.

We are progressing with key operational changes to support growth and enhance profitability through financial efficiencies. In April 2026, we announced a restructuring with which we have taken the first steps to simplify and streamline our structure. This has enhanced agility, accountability and positions the Company for continued expansion.

Group Financials

Bloomsbury’s revenue was £151.6m (H1 2025/26: £159.5m) and Adjusted Profit was £16.8m (H1 2025/26: £24.0m). Profit before taxation was £9.3m (H1 2025/26: £18.3m).

Highlighted items totalled £7.5m (H1 2025/26: £5.7m) comprising amortisation of acquired intangible assets of £4.3m (H1 2025/26: £4.5m) and one-off integration and restructuring costs of £3.2m (H1 2025/26: £1.2m).

The effective rate of tax for the six months was 24.7% (H1 2025/26: 24.6%), with an adjusted effective rate of tax, excluding highlighted items, of 19.0% (H1 2025/26: 21.7%). Net finance costs were £0.3m (H1 2025/26: £0.7m).

Adjusted diluted earnings per share were 16.67p (H1 2025/26: 22.98p) and diluted earnings per share 8.58p (H1 2025/26: 16.79p).

The interim dividend will increase by 5% to 4.28p per share (H1 2025/26: 4.08p per share).

Bloomsbury has a strong net cash position of £22.8m at 31 August 2026 (H1 2025/26: £2.4m). This consists of cash of £30.1m and a term loan of £7.3m. We have repaid $27.5m of the debt associated with the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield, $10.0m of which was in H1 2026/27. The remaining $10m loan matures in May 2027.  

Consumer Division

The Consumer Division consists of Adult, Young Adult, Children’s and Special Interest publishing. Consumer revenue was £102.8m (H1 2025/26: £113.4m) and Adjusted Profit was £9.8m (H1 2025/26: £13.4m) with a margin of 9.5% (H1 2025/26: 11.8%). The margin would have been 11.6% excluding Special Interest and we announced the decision to sell Who’s Who and Osprey Games earlier this year. Profit before taxation was £9.5m (H1 2025/26: £13.1m).

In the first half of 2026/27, Alex Aster’s Starside and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s High Fibre Heroes were Sunday Times bestsellers. Other notable successes have been Ann Patchett’s Whistler, the latest in Sheena Dempsey’s bestselling Pablo & Splash series Viking Voyage, and Katherine Rundell’s The Neverfear, the third in the five book Impossible Creatures series.

Growth is second half weighted and the new novels for H2 2026/27 include many of our bestselling authors. In September, Gillian Anderson’s follow-up to Want, titled More, and Stephen Graham’s Letters to Our Sons, became instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Sarah J. Maas’ much anticipated next two novels in the A Court of Thorns and Roses (‘ACOTAR’) series, A Court of Splintered Harmony and A Court of Forgotten Melody, will be published on 27 October 2026 and 12 January 2027, respectively.

HBO will release their series of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter on Christmas Day, ensuring a huge family audience. Non-traditional book retailers, including major supermarkets, have placed orders for Bloomsbury’s new TV tie-in edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with a stunning film-based jacket, creating the opportunity for the series to reach a large new generation of readers. In addition, a new illustrated edition, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Illustrated, was published on 6 October 2026. The Pocket Potters series began with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger – followed by Hagrid and Dobby in August 2026 and Fred & George Weasley to be published in February 2027.

Academic & Professional Division

The Academic & Professional Division (A&P) consists of academic and professional publishing. A&P showed encouraging signs of recovery as revenue increased by 5.9% to £48.8m (H1 2025/26: £46.1m), with underlying growth in all territories and in both print and digital (excluding AI licensing) in the first half. The intellectual property value and quality of our academic list enabled us to continue our non-exclusive AI licensing agreement in 2026/27, though to a lesser quantum leading to a reduced margin. Adjusted Profit was £6.8m (H1 2025/26: £11.0m) with a margin of 13.9% (H1 2025/26: 23.9%). Profit before taxation was £2.8m (H1 2025/26: £6.8m).

Our partnership with Google has enabled us to experiment with new forms of content discovery, including the use of AI-driven search within our digital archive resources.

We have also taken part in piloting Google’s new Expert Intelligence initiative which launched in August 2026, enabling users to interact with trusted expert content through Google's AI tools. Within Google Gemini Notebook, users can import eligible purchased ebooks containing trusted publisher content and then ask questions about that content, receive cited responses, and generate personal study aids.

Bloomsbury has two featured Notebooks on Google’s platform, How to Study and What is Philosophy?. These have driven strong engagement, with How to Study evolving into a highly successful study coach, attracting 568,000 readers. This has increased visibility of our content and authors while also strengthening brand awareness.

We have expanded our business in Asia by opening an office in Singapore as a hub to further capitalise on the projected growth in the student population in the region, building on the success of our established offices in Australia and India. Via our newly established Singapore office we are developing a new Asia Studies digital publishing vertical, establishing strong relations with key institutions and, following a successful round of meetings at Beijing International Book Fair, have made progress in advancing publishing partnerships with several major publishing houses in China.

Anthropic

The Group is a Class Member in the U.S. copyright class action lawsuit (Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC), in which the U.S. District Court for the Northern District for California ruled that Anthropic faced liability for downloading pirated books to build and maintain a central library. On 20 July 2026, the Court granted final approval of a Class-wide Settlement Agreement under which Anthropic PBC agreed to establish a total settlement fund of $1.5 billion to resolve claims relating to such actions. The Group has submitted claims to the Settlement Administrator in accordance with the terms of the Settlement Agreement, and is currently working through the settlement process.

Acquisitions

Bloomsbury has a successful track record in strategic acquisitions, with 34 completed to date. We will continue to assess further acquisition opportunities.

Dividend

The interim dividend will increase by 5% to 4.28p per share (H1 2025/26: 4.08p). The interim dividend will be paid on 27 November 2026 to Shareholders on the register on the record date of 30 October 2026. Bloomsbury reiterates its intention to increase the dividend for the full year in-line with market expectations.

Board Changes

In April 2026, we announced the appointment of Jenny Ridout to Bloomsbury’s Board as an Executive Director. Jenny will continue leading our Academic & Professional Division.

Bloomsbury also announced the appointment of Chris Blatchford to its Board as a Non-Executive Director, effective from 19 May 2026. Chris is Chief Technology Officer at Kingfisher plc, and was formerly Chief Technology Officer for Research at Elsevier. Baroness Lola Young retired from the Board at the conclusion of the 2026 Annual General Meeting.

In September, we announced the five-year leadership succession plan. Nigel Newton became Executive Chairman, and a new Chief Executive will be appointed in two years’ time. Nigel Newton will remain as Executive Chairman for the first three years of their tenure to support key strategic relationships and ensure a smooth and successful transition. At the conclusion of the five-year succession plan, Nigel Newton will become Non-Executive Chairman.

John Bason moved from Chairman to Deputy Chairman as well as becoming Senior Independent Director with enhanced responsibilities. The Chief Executive appointment process will be led by John Bason as Chair of the Nomination Committee and will consider internal and external candidates.

Current Trading and Outlook

The Board looks to the current year with confidence in delivering record results in line with Adjusted Profit expectations.

Bloomsbury’s portfolio of portfolios strategy, our authors, customers and the scale and resilience of our business continue to underpin the confidence we have in the future.

Note

The Board considers consensus market expectation (before this publication) for the year ending 28 February 2027 to be revenue of £354.3m and Adjusted Profit of £49.9m.

For further information, please contact:

Disclaimer

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.

Condensed Consolidated Interim Income Statement

For the six months ended 31 August 2026

The accompanying notes form an integral part of this condensed consolidated interim financial report.

Condensed Consolidated Interim Statement of Comprehensive Income

For the six months ended 31 August 2026

Items in the statement above are disclosed net of tax.

Condensed Consolidated Interim Statement of Financial Position

At 31 August 2026

Condensed Consolidated Interim Statement of Changes in Equity

For the period ended 31 August 2026

Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements

1. Reporting entity

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (the “Company”) is a Company domiciled in the United Kingdom. The condensed consolidated interim financial statements of the Company as at and for the six months ended 31 August 2026 comprise the Company and its subsidiaries (together referred to as the “Group”). The Group is primarily involved in the publication of books and other related services.

2. Significant accounting policies

a) Basis of preparation

These condensed consolidated interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standard (“IAS”) 34 ‘Interim Financial Reporting’. They are unaudited and do not constitute statutory accounts. Selected explanatory notes are included to explain events and transactions that are significant to an understanding of the changes in financial position and performance of the Group since the last annual consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended 28 February 2026.

Except as described below, the condensed set of financial statements have been prepared on a consistent basis with the financial statements for the year ended 28 February 2026 and should be read in conjunction with the Annual Report 2026. The annual consolidated financial statements of the Group are prepared in accordance with UK-adopted International Accounting Standards and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. The 2026 Annual Report refers to other new standards effective from 1 March 2026. None of these standards have had a material impact in these financial statements.

The comparative financial information for the year ended 28 February 2026 does not constitute statutory accounts for that financial year. This information was extracted from the statutory accounts for the year ended 28 February 2026, a copy of which has been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditor’s report on those accounts was unqualified and did not include a reference to any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis of matter and did not contain a statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The condensed consolidated interim financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Directors on 21 October 2026.

b) Going concern

The Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for at least 12 months from the date of approval of the condensed consolidated interim financial statements, being the period of the detailed going concern assessment reviewed by the Board, and therefore continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

The Board has modelled a severe but plausible downside scenario. This assumes:

At 31 August 2026, the Group had available liquidity of £60.1m, comprising central cash balances and its undrawn £30.0m Revolving Credit Facility (“RCF”). The RCF agreement is to March 2029. Under the severe but plausible downside scenario, the Group would maintain sufficient liquidity headroom even before modelling the mitigating effect of actions that management would take in the event that these downside risks were to crystallise.

The Group has an unsecured revolving credit facility with Lloyds Bank Plc. At 31 August 2026, the Group had £nil draw down (H1 2025/26: £nil) of this facility with £30.0m of undrawn borrowing facilities (H1 2025/26: £20.0m) available. The facility comprises a committed revolving credit facility of £30m, and an uncommitted incremental term loan facility of up to £20m.

In May 2024, the Group entered into an unsecured term loan facility with Lloyds Bank Plc, comprising a committed amount of $37.5m. The facility has a three-year term, maturing in May 2027. As at 31 August 2026, the outstanding balance was $10.0m (H1 2025/26: $20.0m).

Both facilities are subject to two covenants, being a maximum net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.5x and a minimum interest cover covenant of 4x.

c) Uses of estimates and judgments

The preparation of condensed consolidated interim financial statements requires management to make judgments, estimates and assumptions that affect the application of accounting policies and the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Actual results may differ from these estimates. Critical judgments and areas where the use of estimates is significant are set out in the 2026 Annual Report.

3. Segmental analysis

The Group is comprised of two worldwide publishing divisions: Consumer and Academic & Professional, reflecting the core customers for our different operations. 

These divisions are the basis on which the Group primarily reports its segment information. Segments derive their revenue from book publishing, sale of publishing and distribution rights, management and other publishing services. The analysis by segment is shown below:

Adjusted operating profit is operating profit before highlighted items.

External revenue by product type

Rights and services revenue includes revenue from copyright and trademark licences, management contracts, advertising and publishing services.

Unallocated primarily represents centrally held assets including system development, property, plant and equipment, right-of-use assets, receivables and cash.

4. Highlighted items

Highlighted items charged to operating profit comprise significant non-cash charges and major one-off initiatives, which are highlighted in the income statement because, in the opinion of the Directors, separate disclosure is helpful in understanding the underlying performance and future profitability of the business.

For the six months ended 31 August 2026, integration and restructuring costs of £3.2m were incurred in respect of restructuring across the business.

For the six months ended 31 August 2025, integration and restructuring costs of £1.2m were incurred in respect of the integration of the Rowman & Littlefield acquisition, the UK distributor move to Hachette UK Distribution and implementation of the new royalty system.

For the year ended 28 February 2026, integration and restructuring costs of £1.7m were incurred in respect of the integration of the Rowman & Littlefield acquisition, the UK distributor move to Hachette UK Distribution and the implementation of the new royalty system.

5. Dividends

The proposed interim dividend of 4.28p per ordinary share will be paid to the equity Shareholders on 27 November 2026 to Shareholders registered at close of business on 30 October 2026.

6. Earnings per share

The basic earnings per share for the six months ended 31 August 2026 is calculated using a weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue of 80,843,020 (31 August 2025: 81,304,651 and 28 February 2026: 81,354,266) after deducting shares held by the Employee Benefit Trust.

The diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares to take account of all dilutive potential Ordinary Shares, which are in respect of unexercised share options and the Performance share Plan.

Adjusted profit after tax is derived as follows:

The Group includes the benefit of tax amortisation of intangible assets in the calculation of adjusted tax as this more accurately aligns the adjusted tax charge with the expected cash tax payments.

7. Trade and other receivables

Non-current receivables relate to accrued income on long-term rights deals.

Trade receivables principally comprise amounts receivable from the sale of books due from distributors.

A provision is held against gross advances payable in respect of published titles advances which may not be fully earned down by anticipated future sales. As at 31 August 2026 £7.9m (31 August 2025 £9.9m and 28 February 2026 £13.0m) of royalty advances relate to titles expected to be published in more than 12 months’ time.

8. Related parties

The Group has no related party transactions in the current or prior periods other than key management remuneration.

9. Anthropic Copyright Settlement

The Group is a Class Member in the U.S. copyright class action lawsuit (Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC), in which the U.S. District Court for the Northern District for California ruled that Anthropic faced liability for downloading pirated books to build and maintain a central library. On 20 July 2026, the Court granted final approval of a Class-wide Settlement Agreement under which Anthropic PBC agreed to establish a total settlement fund of $1.5 billion to resolve claims relating to such actions.

The Group has submitted claims to the Settlement Administrator in accordance with the terms of the Settlement Agreement, and is currently working through the settlement process.

The Group has not recorded an asset, or associated income, in relation to this matter in the interim financial statements for the six months ending 31 August 2026, as the quantum and timing of any settlement is insufficiently certain at this stage.

Principal risks and uncertainties

Bloomsbury has a systematic and embedded risk management process for identifying, evaluating and managing risk, with the goal of supporting the Group in meeting its strategic and operational objectives.

The principal risks for the Group’s business are summarised as follows:

Further information about the principal risks and risk management is included in the 2026 Annual Report and Accounts.

Responsibility Statement of the Directors in Respect of the Interim Financial Statements

We confirm that to the best of our knowledge:

(a)   DTR 4.2.7R of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, being an indication of important events that have occurred during the first six months of the financial year and their impact on the condensed set of financial statements; and a description of the principal risks and uncertainties for the remaining six months of the year; and

(b)   DTR 4.2.8R of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, being related party transactions that have taken place in the first six months of the current financial year and that have materially affected the financial position or performance of the entity during that period; and any changes in the related party transactions described in the last annual report that could do so.

By order of the Board

Nigel Newton   Keith Underwood 

21 October 2026