- Bumper acquisition is a ‘game-changer’ for Bloomsbury, boss claims
Bloomsbury Publishing shares rose on Wednesday after the group revealed its biggest acquisition to date.
The London-listed independent publisher behind the Harry Potter series has acquired US group Rowman & Littlefield’s academic publishing business for £65million.
Bloomsbury’s boss Nigel Newton hailed the deal as a ‘game-changer’ for the publisher, which upon completion will publish around 97,000 titles globally.
Bloomsbury shares rose 2.33 per cent or 13p to 571p on Wednesday morning, having increased by nearly 40 per cent in the last year.
Bumper acquisition: Bloomsbury Publishing has secured its biggest acquisition to date
Bloomsbury said it will pay £60million upfront in cash, with an additional £5million held in escrow.
The deal does not include Rowman & Littlefield’s trade publishing or other non-academic units.
Rowman & Littlefield, founded in 1949, publishes over 40,000 academic titles. The deal will enhance Bloomsbury’s portfolio, expanding its reach in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Bloomsbury is looking to bolster its academic arm focusing on digital resources and expanding subject areas like business and psychology.
The acquisition is expected to boost Bloomsbury’s earnings significantly by 2025/26.
It will be funded from the publisher’s cash reserves and a £30million loan from Lloyds Bank. The transaction does not require shareholder approval.
Newton said: ‘Rowman & Littlefield is one of the few independent US academic publishers of such scale and it is great that our discussions with Jed Lyons have led to this acquisition.
‘Their 40,000 academic titles added to ours will make us a significant US academic publisher, growing Bloomsbury’s academic and digital publishing presence in North America, opening new markets and publishing areas to Bloomsbury, and is a key milestone in the delivery of our long-term growth strategy.
‘Following the exceptional performance in our Consumer division in our recently announced Preliminary Results, the acquisition accelerates our Non-Consumer division, underlining our portfolio of portfolios strategy.’
Bloomsbury shares sank last week after chair Richard Lambert announced his retirementafter seven years in the role.
Lambert, 79, a journalist and former chair of the British Museum, will be succeeded by John Bason, currently an independent non-executive director on the Bloomsbury board.
Bloomsbury said results for fiscal 2025 would be slightly above expectations, with a revenue of £283.6million and pre-tax profit of around £35.4million.
For the year ending 29 February, the group reported a pre-tax profit before exceptional items of £48.7million on revenues of £342.7million, driven by strong demand for fantasy fiction titles, particularly by author Sarah J Maas.