Bloomsbury Publishing declared a special dividend and lifted targets for the current year, after strong book sales during lockdowns drove a 22 per cent surge in the Harry Potter publisher's annual earnings.
Profit before taxation and highlighted items rose to 19.2 million pounds in the 12 months to Feb 28 from 15.7 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue jumped 14 per cent to 185.1 million pounds.
"The strength of demand for our titles, in print, e-book and audio, and the surge in sales of our digital products, demonstrate the strength of our long-term growth strategy," Chief Executive Nigel Newton said.
London-based Bloomsbury had upgraded its 2020-2021 targets multiple times this year thanks to "an exceptional sales performance" in its consumer division for both adult and children's publishing.
The company proposed a special dividend of 9.78 pence in addition to a 10 per cent rise in its final dividend to 7.58 pence per share.
Bloomsbury also expects fiscal 2021-2022 results to be comfortably ahead of market estimates, which call for revenues of 177.5 million pounds and profit before taxation and highlighted items of 17.4 million pounds.
