Wednesday 13 July 2016 9:06 am

More magic from Harry Potter? Bloomsbury reports nine per cent revenue growth

Bloomsbury Publishing’s shares leapt this morning as it reported a nine per cent jump in revenue.

The publisher will today unveil a 2020 growth plan to investors and analysts, targeting “significant growth in digital revenues over the next five years”.

The company also wants to take steps towards “being a non-consumer publisher in the B2B academic and professional information market, as well as a leading consumer publisher”.

In the three months to 31 May, Bloomsbury’s revenue was up nine per cent year-on-year.

It said the growth was driven by children’s publishing, a division that includes the Harry Potter series.

Earlier this year, the publisher reported an eight per cent rise in pre-tax profits following a 133 per cent surge in sales of Potter books.

Sales for digital resources, meanwhile, were up 97 per cent.

The publisher also announced an anticipated rise in profits from Australia of £500,000 from the start of the next financial year, in March 2017.

At the time of writing, on Wednesday morning, Bloomsbury's share price was up nearly four per cent at 163p.

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Bloomsbury also today announced the acquisitions of eight new titles from New York Times best-selling novelist Sarah J Maas.

The publisher also said its digital resource, Drama Online, had acquired exclusive rights to the BBC’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s history plays The Hollow Crown.