Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (BMY) Q2 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and a very warm welcome to the Bloomsbury interim results. We're particularly pleased to see so many analysts and on the live stream to see shareholders and potential shareholders. So a very warm welcome to you all. I'm Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, and on my right is Penny Scott-Bayfield, Chief Financial Officer. Bloomsbury and Tamsin Geraghty, Head of Investor Relations. We're delighted to present to you now our results for the period, the rather interesting Bloomsbury months of March through to the end of August. You can see on slide two, our strategy of diversification has created a portfolio of portfolios. That is our mantra at Bloomsbury, much as our shareholders, the fund managers do in their own portfolios. in an effort to balance the vicissitudes of one area against another. And we believe we've created a resilient business model for long-term success. We're pleased to report revenue of £160 million in the six months, profit of £24 million with a strong and improved margin of 15%. We've signed our first non-exclusive AI licensing agreement with potential for more. On the one hand and on the other, we have major bestsellers from our consumer division, including Gillian Anderson, who dominates the charts in the second half and has been number one in paperback for nine weeks now. It is of enormous economic significance that our best-selling author, Catherine Rundell, has secured a long-term film deal with Walt Disney Studios for her brilliant Impossible Creatures series. We demonstrate our confidence in the future by increasing the dividend by 5% and stating that we expect to deliver full-year results ahead of expectations. Now on the next slide, Bloomsbury's investment case. Let's consider that for a minute. We built a portfolio whi...