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UPDATE 2-Bloomsbury sees celeb chefs, cricket buoying sales

Published 08/27/2009, 06:29 AM
Updated 08/27/2009, 06:33 AM
INVP
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* Pretax profit 1.8 million stg vs 5.4 million year earlier

* Sees good second-half sales

* New cook books, Wisden cricket Almanack to help sales

* Eyes more acquisitions to reduce reliance on fiction

* Shares flat at 121-1/2 pence

(Adds CEO interview, analyst comment, details, shares)

By Paul Adrian Raymond

LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - British publisher Bloomsbury posted a 66 percent slide in first-half profit but predicted good second-half sales, thanks to new titles planned this autumn as it plugs the gap left by the end of the Harry Potter series.

New publications will include a compact edition of Heston Blumenthal's cook book celebrating his Fat Duck restaurant, regularly listed as one of the world's top restaurants, and a new book from TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Bloomsbury, which is focusing on less risky academic and specialist publishing, also said the first e-book version of Wisden's Cricket Almanack, updated to include England's Ashes victory against Australia on Sunday, would appear in coming months.

The publisher of Khaled Hosseini's best seller "The Kite Runner" posted a pretax profit of 1.8 million pounds ($2.9 million) for the six months to the end of June, down from 5.4 million a year earlier.

Revenue fell 16 percent to 35.3 million pounds.

The drop reflected tough trading conditions for retailers and Bloomsbury's struggle to match last year's performance, when the paperback release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and strong sales of the Hosseini titles boosted revenue.

MORE BUYS

Chief executive Nigel Newton said the company, which bought the Wisden titles late last year, was considering further acquisitions. It has bought two specialist publishers so far this year including legal and business specialist Tottel.

"We're looking at possibilities the whole time ... but acquisitions always depend on third parties," he told Reuters.

Newton said a growing share of revenue now came from academic and specialist books which are less vulnerable to consumer tastes.

"Annual updates of reference books have a particular traction. We're looking for dependable repeat revenues," he said. "We want to sell books professionals need as well as books consumers need to be made to want to have."

Newton said the company had reached the stage of "digital readiness" to take advantage of the E-book market which hit $60 million in the United States last year.

The company raised its interim dividend by 4 percent to 0.78 pence after earnings of 1.7 pence per share, beating the 1.3 pence predicted by broker Investec Securities.

Analysts at Numis Securities described it as a good set of results from Bloomsbury and reiterated their "hold" recommendation on the stock.

"Although we are supportive of the group's strategy, we are generally cautious on consumer book publishing and note the importance of the Christmas season," they wrote.

Shares in the company, which have fallen 22 percent this year and underperformed a 16 percent rise for UK media stocks as a whole, were flat at 121-1/2 pence by 0908 GMT. (Editing by Dan Lalor and David Holmes) ($1 = 0.6170 pound)

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