Bloomsbury AGM Trading Update

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announces that it has signed a sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of certain assets of Red Globe Press (“RGP”), the academic imprint, from Macmillan Education Limited, a part of Springer Nature Group. The consideration is £3.7 million, of which £2.1 million will be satisfied in cash at completion and up to £1.6 million will be paid on or post-completion, subject to assignment of certain contracts. RGP specialises in high-quality publishing for Higher Education students globally in Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Management, and Study Skills. RGP has a backlist of more than 7,000 titles and publishes more than 100 new titles per year, with content including digital platforms, textbooks, research-driven materials and general academic publishing. The acquired RGP titles are a good strategic fit, strengthen Bloomsbury’s existing academic publishing, and establish new areas of academic publishing in Business and Management, Study Skills and Psychology. RGP’s three digital products will be migrated to Bloomsbury Digital Resources’ own platform and its content added to Bloomsbury Collections. The business will operate within Bloomsbury’s Academic and Professional division.

The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) released the November results for its monthly survey on capacity and lead times for soft cover and hard cover books. As the book manufacturing landscape has changed recently, BMI put together the survey to get a better idea of what manufacturers were facing and what publishers should expect. This month held fairly steady on capacities, but showed lead times continuing to decline. According to responses regarding hard cover books, the average manufacturer was running at 82% of their capacity, equal to October. The average lead time for completed hard cover books went down to 59 days from 62 days, based on 16 responses. For soft cover books, capacity usage dropped to 81% from 83%. The average lead time dropped to 38 days from 45 days, based on 20 responses.

What could be more exciting than the end of the school year? For many students, the answer is graduation season. May and June mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in many families’ lives. And paper is there every step of the way, even in this digital world. What would graduation season be like without paper? Just imagine that you’re walking across the stage on your graduation day. A crowd of family and friends are in the audience to cheer you on. You reflect on your achievements and consider where you’ll hang your beautiful framed diploma. You shake hands with a school official, and then you hear, “Congratulations on your graduation! Log on to our website to access your diploma.” Click Read More below for additional information.