Weak sales at its children's and educational division weighed on first half profit at publisher Bloomsbury as strong demand for the Harry Potter series dwindles.

The publisher said pre-tax profit fell to £0.9m in the six month ended August 31st 2012 from £1.5m before. Adjusted pre-tax profit fell to £2.1m compared to £3.3m. Turnover for the interim period increased to £43.5m from £42.4m.

Revenue from children's and educational books, which make up around 22% of total revenue, declined 23% to £9.3m. Continuing operating profit reduced by £0.9m to nil reflecting the reduction in Harry Potter sales compared to last year, which was boosted by the final movie in 2011, the group explained.

Bloomsbury, which has a second half list which includes Hugh's Three Good Things by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, How to Bake by Paul Hollywood, said it is well positioned for stronger book sales over the next six months.

It underlined its confidence by increasing its interim dividend by 6% to 0.94p per share.

Ebook sales were a bright spot, up 89% to £4.5m compared to £2.4m before and new e-reader devices are expected to boost fourth quarter ebook sales.

Chief Executive Nigel Newton said: "Higher ebook sales and academic turnover continue to increase the weighting of our sales to the second half. In addition we have a strong second half list, including potential best sellers, and are targeting a significant number of rights and services contracts."

"We remain well positioned for the future and results continue to show a positive trend over the longer term."


Speciality chemicals producer AZ Electronic Materials had a stronger third quarter and confirmed that it's on track to meet full-year expectations; this was sufficient to send its share up in mid-morning trading.

In an Interim Management Statement (IMS) covering the period from July 1st to October 24th, it said: "Current trading in October shows that overall the business is performing in line with our expectations, which for the 2012 full year are unchanged."

Consensus estimates for the full year ending December 31st are for pre-tax profits of £106.79 on revenues of £502.42m, with earnings per share of 22.67p.

As part of the IMS it also provided financials for the period up to the end of its third quarter at September 30th.

In the three-month period to September 30th, revenues increased 1% year-on-year to $203.5m (Q3 2011: $202m), and on a constant currency basis was up 4%. Group revenue for the nine months was $587.1m, down 1% from the same period last year.

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