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20 May 2020
Bloomsbury Publishing : Impressive resilience - Buy

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Bloomsbury Publishing : Impressive resilience - Buy
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (BMY:LON) | 490 22 0.9% | Mkt Cap: 399.7m
- Published:
20 May 2020 -
Author:
Alastair Reid | Ross Broadfoot -
Pages:
6 -
FY20 results robust: Bloomsbury has reported FY20 revenue of £162.8m, PBT of £15.7m (up 9%) and EPS of 16.8p, all broadly in-line with expectations despite the impact of Covid-19 on the Chinese market in Jan/Feb. By division, Non Consumer grew 4%, driven by 4% growth in Academic & Professional (A&P), whilst Consumer saw just a 3% decline against tough comparables (and fewer Sarah J Maas titles), helped by the strong H2 frontlist, which helped drive 12% growth in Adult Trade. The A&P success story is particularly encouraging with Bloomsbury Digital Resources up 32%, helping the group’s continuing strategy to diversify – profit growth in this division was 58%. Harry Potter sales were in-line with FY19 & audiobook sales were up 190%.
Signs for encouragement: The year-end net cash position (£31.3m), recent placing proceeds & cash conservation measures ensure investment can continue whilst print distribution is disrupted. We previously assumed 80% of print revenues were lost for 6 months but group revenue is down just 3% YTD to the end of April with print revenues running at 87% of last year, signs of certain markets starting to re-open and academic digital revenues up 52%. This should give confidence in the track record of dividend payments being maintained – the company propose a bonus issue equivalent to a final dividend of 6.89p per share.
Focus on long-term value: No guidance is provided at this point, but management note a downside scenario now of print revenues down 60-65% for 3 months – implementing this, our FY20E revenue / PBT increase by 14%/104%, with FY21E PBT trimmed 7%. The shares trade at c.15x CY21E earnings – we see scope for Bloomsbury to emerge from the crisis in a relatively stronger position, with optionality from deploying placing proceeds.