Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Good morning and welcome to all analysts here in this room and to shareholders and potential shareholders watching the webcast and we welcome all of you. I'm Nigel Newton, I'm Executive Chairman and I'm joined by Keith Underwood, Chief Financial and Operating Officer of Bloomsbury Publishing. have we got the next slide up yes excellent our strategy of diversification has created a portfolio of portfolios much as you all do in your own portfolios of companies you invest in balancing the vicissitudes of one area of publishing against the other we've created a resilient model of Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We have a strong balance sheet with net cash of 22.8 million, which brings capital allocation to the fore. The dividend slide, always my favorite, as the chart shows, Bloomsbury has delivered 31 years of consistent dividend growth since flotation in 1994. In the first half of 26-27... So let's recap on the investment case

For Bloomsbury, this is one of really strong shareholder returns derived from a diversified portfolio across academic and consumer publishing, across print and digital formats, and from an increasingly international audience. As Nigel mentioned earlier, this diversification has created a more resilient model for long-term success. Last year, in FY26, the academic and professional division had strong profits doubling to £25 million, which mitigated lower profits in the consumer division. This year, with academic and professional returning to a more normalised run rate, we're set to deliver record results driven by an exceptional performance in the consumer division. That is the portfolio of portfolios in action. So in terms of the financial highlights for the first half of this year, revenue £151.6 million and adjusted profit of £16.8 million with a margin of £11.1 taking EPS to £16.67 pence. Our net cash position is really strong at 22.8 million and the dividend is up 5% continuing that fantastic track record of unbroken dividend growth. Tamsin Anne Bernadette Garrity, The academic and professional division delivered really good growth of 6% on an underlying basis. That's excluding AI within the numbers as well. Delivered growth in all territories and in all formats. You can see their print sales, for example, increasing by over 30%, showing strong demand for what is a really resilient format. The intellectual property value and quality of our academic list has enabled us to continue our non-exclusive AI licensing agreement into this financial year, although, as we have always said, it's to a lesser quantum this year, leading to a reduced margin.

So, consumer bestsellers. Well, in Romanticy, Sarah J. Maas is launching not one but two novels in the most popular of her three series, A Court of Thorns and Roses. Akitar, A Court of Splintered Harmony A Court of Forgotten Melody J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is already benefiting from the new Harry Potter TV streaming series starting on Christmas Day itself, no less, on HBO Max, and I predict a Thank you very much. Stephen Graham was an instant bestseller with letters to our sons.