Bloomsbury Publishing (LSE:BMY) — Preliminary Results

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Nigel Newton, CEO. Good morning to you, sir.

0:30 Good morning to you, and good morning to all of you, and thank you very much indeed for being with us this afternoon. I'm delighted also to welcome my co presenters of Penny Scott Bayfield, group finance director of Bloomsbury Publishing, and Tamsen Garrity, a new role of head of investor relations. So I'm sure the fact that you're sitting here is living proof of her making it all happen. Oops. And there we go. So we're going to start now

1:15 with the first slide, if I may have it, please. So you all saw the fantastic results that we announced two weeks ago now, and our key message here has been the success of our strategy, no doubt very like your own, of having a portfolio of portfolios so that we're hedging the volatile consumer markets against the steadier academic market on the one hand and the booming conditions in America against the more constrained economic conditions in some other countries and by subject area.

2:07 So the portfolio portfolios has done us proud as the consumer division has taken up the charge led in recent years by the academic or nonconsumer division. 30% sales growth and 57% profit growth, good dividend increase, growth in Bloomsbury digital resources, and the flywheel effect. Next slide, please. So I would particularly draw your attention to the top right tablet there, a a margin of 14.2%, which is fantastic and has been one of our goals.

2:54 And if you look on the right, you'll see three of the books that we did it with. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell was voted book of the year, and she was voted author of the year. So that's our our great new fantasy success in a genre that's doing very well for us. Sarah J Maas, of which more in a minute, and Peter Frankapan's Magisterial History of Climate, The Earth Transformed. Next slide, please. So good afternoon, everyone. And here I'm to take you through the financial highlights. So Nigel's talked about our 30% increase in revenue.

3:42 He's also mentioned our 57% increase on profits. And as he's he's been saying in some of the other meetings, if we've got something good to say, we're going to be saying it at least three times. Well, obviously, the impact of that on our diluted EPS was for that to come up by 53%, so we're really delighted with that result. And then as you mentioned already, a 25% increase in our full year dividend. So we hope that for those of you who are shareholders that that's a very a way of rewarding you and thanking you for your support. We'd also call your attention out to the net cash position, which is just over 6 just under 66,000,000. And we're obviously that gives us, huge firepower, which is as some of you will know, that just after these results were announced, in fact, three days later three working days later, we announced a really significant acquisition to use that firepower to generate further growth through m and a. And we'll talk through that further in the q and a sessions afterwards.

4:42 So if we move on to the next slide where we where we highlight our revenue and here what we're doing is taking you through the revenue by channel. So you can see we're platform agnostic. We create great content, and then our aim is to get it out into whatever format the customer, whether they be an enormous academic institution or an individual, whatever format both suits them. So you can hear the extraordinary resilience and, in fact, growth of print up 32%, and that's been very much focused on the consumer side of the business. Within academic, the trend that we forecast many, many years ago, which was that the academic market would move away from print and to digital has absolutely played out this year. And that's been part of what's driven this extraordinary 47% growth in ebooks as well as further growth in in digital resources.

5:31 We've also seen a 50% growth in audio, and that's really exciting. I think it's still a small market at the moment, but with the entry of Spotify coming in, we see great potential for further growth there. And it's exciting because that tends to be additive. People will buy an audiobook as well as another type of it rather than switching to. So really interesting and and very positive outlook there.

5:59 So if we move on to the next slide, which provides an update on the strength of our balance sheet. So as many of you know, our strong balance sheet has been a really important factor in our success, both providing firepower and and when we have the opportunities and great resilience when, things have been tougher, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic. So here, again, I'd call out the attention to the net cash just under 66,000,000. We remain highly cash generative, and that's through our operations, but that's also how we're leveraging what we do. And within that, can see on the right hand side there, we've reduced out the cash tied up with stock by 26%. So that's created 10,000,000 of cash that we can then use to fund growth.

6:47 And that's come about from being smarter about our production and also benefiting slightly from the fact that the supply chains certainly over last year were under less pressure than they've been, certainly during the pandemic. So a combination of being very agile about where we print, being smarter about it. With academic, we now need to print less means that that creates a real tangible opportunity. So if we move on to the cash flow, and Tamsen will take us through the highlights here. Excellent. So I think one of the big highlights here is our cash flow generated from operations. So nearing 49,000,000, so extremely strong as Penny has suggested. So I think looking over to where we have spent that money, 11,000,000 of that or just over has gone into rewarding shareholders with dividend payments.

7:38 So taking us to our next slide, which is one of the board's favorite slides. So our full year dividend increased by 25% this year, reflecting the exceptional operational performance, but also the prioritization of our shareholders. So 14.69p of dividend, 25% growth. So very, very strong growth. And we continue with, even post acquisition, a fairly conservative balance sheet, and we'll continue to focus on returns to shareholders and rewarding our shareholders and maintaining growth of dividend, but very conservative balance sheet and strong cash and earnings cover. So on to our investment case. So many of you will be very familiar with our investment case. And as Nigel has talked about, we are very focused on our portfolio of portfolios, so that unique portfolio that we have of consumer and academic publishing.

8:33 We've had really strong performance over the last few years from our academic business, and then this year, an exceptional performance from our consumer business, which demonstrates that balance and the protection of the vicissitudes from either of those markets. So that successful diversified strategy, not only between the business areas, but also across channels, markets, and territories, and that's a really important part of our strategy.

9:01 So that's delivered 222% growth in adjusted earnings per share over the last five years to 24. So really strong earnings growth, and as we've walked through, progressive dividend policy and rewarding shareholders as a result of that. So then turning to a key pillar of our strategy, which here we talked about at the results, but have actually delivered, as Penny suggested, three days after our our end of year results. So acquisitions remain a key pillar of our strategy. We use our strong financial position to augment our growth through acquisitions, and we gain scale through selective strategic acquisitions, mainly in the academic, mainly in digital, and mainly in US. And that's exactly what we've delivered upon with the recent acquisition of Roman and Littlefield.

9:51 So now we've made 34 acquisitions since the inception of the company, so over the thirty seven years, which is a really strong level of acquisitions. And we'll talk through what that gives us in terms of that experience of integration as we progress through the Roman and Littlefield acquisition. And then looking at our diversified strategy, again, we'll say everything three times. So our channels, our territories, and our markets. So this is very key as to how we view our business and how we plan going forward. So in channels, this is really formats. And what we what's key to understanding is that we are completely platform agnostic. So we will meet our customer whether they be consumer or academic

10:38 using whichever format may suits that customer. So digital products, print, whether that be hard or paperback, ebooks, audio, video, we have the every platform covered, an easy complimentary customer access, and we are always working on our technology backbone. So the channels is an important part to understand that we are truly platform agnostic. And then in territories, we're very proud to say 77% of revenue is now international. Really strong growth from The US, and that, you know, we are expanding as you've already seen post year end in The US market. And then in terms of markets, we are fairly unique in our complementary academic and consumer publishing, and that does really provide a key base for our portfolio of portfolios. So many of you are managing your own portfolio.

11:30 And we are diversified, and I think that's a key part of understanding our strategy so that we aren't exposed merely to academic or merely to consumer or one particular market, but are truly international and diversified. So we saw exceptional upside in the consumer area as you've gathered this time with 49% revenue growth in that area and a 108% profit growth. The in the in the bottom bullets there, you'll see consumer profit margin increased to 15% from 11%. So that's really a key figure for us.

12:18 And let's take a look at the next slide and how we did it. Well, there's one answer. So Sarah Mass is now a global brand. You can see the three different series of her books that we publish in the middle, Throne of Glass in black, and then A Course of Thorns and Roses, and then Crescent City by Sarah j Maas. So and it was in that last series that January's new publication came out, House of Flame and Shadow. We're very lucky that we've had to deal with one of these taking off global brands before in the form of Harry Potter in the years 1997 to 2007.

13:14 Believe it or not, we have a number of veterans of that period, not just me, but also Kathleen Farrow, our sales and marketing director. They're very complicated to manage because the whole world is trying to get a piece of these star authors in in the form of interviews and wanting them for events, speeches, signing sessions, you name it, as well as a real urgency to know what happens in the plot of the latest book. Next slide, please. So there's some of our experience in building

13:57 bestsellers. So Sarah Mass is now 16 different books. That strong backlist has been a key driver in these numbers as fans new to her read through the whole of the three series. She's been described as the Taylor Swift of publishing, and we'll go with that. And her books were described in Forbes Magazine as the best selling books of

14:25 the beginning of the year. So these are all part of a wider genre, science fiction and fantasy, which you can see can see have grown considerably. Samantha Shannon is another one of our star fantasy writers. We signed her up when she was still an undergraduate at Oxford, and she's gone from strength to strength. Xi Jin Liu, our Beijing based best selling science fiction author, had, as you all know, a Netflix streaming series, think, an eight parter that launched on March 23. So after the financial period, we're reporting to you on.

15:12 And, boy, has it become big since then. It was already big, but, you know, there's no power like the power of of Netflix for widening an audience. And we're very lucky to own head of Zeus, the publishing imprints we bought three years ago or so that brought us this book. Next slide, please.

15:38 So there you see the sheer range of our list. Right hand side middle row, Hoppy Cooks, the actually delicious air fryer cookbook. What what a success that's been. And a number of other big books in the literary fiction side, Anne Patchett by sorry. Tom Lake by Anne Patchett has been a huge global success. And up in the top left, I've already mentioned impossible creatures, but I haven't rementioned Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, one of the great love stories set in fiction in during the time of the troubles in Belfast.

16:27 Huge success. Next slide, please.

16:34 Nonconsumer. So we went backwards in nonconsumer. What happened? Well, first of all,

16:43 it's off a very high comparator figure. Sales had been up 28% in the previous year. Secondly, there are always swings and roundabouts. And in this case, one of them was that the US government ended the COVID funding it was giving to universities, much of which was being channeled into being able to teach people remotely working at home during lockdowns from which we were prime beneficiaries during

17:19 the the the the lockdowns with BDR, BLOOMSBURY digital resources. So this is more steady state. But just to explain to you our confidence in the area expressed since these results in the $83,000,000 acquisition of the great independent American academic publisher, Roman and Littlefield. Are these World Bank statistics in the third tablet down there? So 380,000,000 higher education students by the year 2030 compared to two 120,000,000 three years ago. So that's pretty dramatic increase in an addressable market.

18:10 No. They're not in The UK. They're not in Italy. They're in India and China and markets in the Far East where BLOOMSBURY are well represented in terms of our Salesforce. Next slide, please. So there is BLOOMSBURY digital resources. As you can see, revenue growth in the period, more projected subscriptions are 50% annual subscriptions. The holy grail are something we seek actively and and look at in the bottom tablet at the room we've got to go. So we've only sold to 2,800 ARLs, academic research libraries, but there are 5,000 of them worldwide.

19:09 So we've got another 2,200 to go, and that just represents future upside. No doubt there'll be the more difficult ones to persuade as we will have started with the low hanging fruit. But we've got the products. Everybody wants drama online. And, cleverly, with the acquisition of ABC CLIA, we've added The US high school market, 27,000 of them. We've so far hit 4,600. So much to go. Next slide, please. Special interest. Well, great to see that's up 6% to 22,900,000 and profit about study.

20:01 We've won some great prizes for our specialist publishing in nature, sports, sailing, military history, bicycling, and so on. Next slide, please. And then looking to our long term growth strategy and goals, we reiterate much of our strategy. And when we've been looking, as Nigel will talk to a bit later about our twenty thirty goals, we have expanded slightly, but our main strategy remains very successful. And so we are expanding a more better and faster rather than a any form of change. So please don't be concerned. In terms of our main focus, it remains discover, nurture, and champion are high quality authors. They are the lifeblood of our business, and we remain focused on using new ways to leverage our existing title rights.

20:58 So I think now we're actually up to a new count today as the base Bloomsbury business over 84,000 titles, and then we've added to that 40,000 of the Roman and Littlefield titles. So we are expanding all of the time. We've delivered, in terms of the consumer business, 49 growth in our consumer revenue with really broad base of bestsellers. Now we would really like to highlight that this was an exceptional year with a 161% growth in the revenue from Sarah J Maas, but also that breadth both in terms of critical and commercial acclaim that we have had over the past year. So very broad based success. And then looking to JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, we've had continued success twenty six years after vast publication, nearly twenty seven now.

21:47 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a number one best selling book again. So within its genre, number one best seller in in the Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac was also a number one in the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists last year. So very broad based success. Then looking towards our international parts of the business, so overseas revenue, 77%, and US revenues increased to 56% of group revenue. And with the recent acquisition, we will see how that develops over the coming year. And then some highlights of nonconsumer, very strong growth over the years from BDR. So twenty six point six million of turnover, but that is 322% growth since 2018, 2019.

22:38 And Bloomsbury's team deserve huge credit for having built this business from scratch. That's a completely organic business that will be built up through, you know, gaining and cross selling from our acquisitions, but that was us recognizing the shift to digital and building that business. And then highlights within sustainability, we are continually winning prizes even this week. We won another one. So we've been winner of the IPG sustainability award, LBF sustainability initiative award. We are continually winning prizes in this area and, you know, the exact opposite of greenwashing. We are making huge strides, say 77% reduction in scope one and two emissions over four years. And if any of you are thrilled by this, you can read about 40 pages that I've written about this in our annual report, which will be published soon.

23:32 And then huge strides in our employee experience and engagement. So diversity, equity, inclusion, we've made huge strides over the last year, and we have a lot of plans coming out through the coming year. Now we have appointed a new head of people and engagement. So we are making huge strides. We won the small cap diversity, inclusivity and engagement award, and we have made a lot of progress in terms of our writers' diversity as well. And so you can see that there in the bottom tablet. And I'll hand over to Nigel to explain Bloomsbury twenty thirty. So thank you very much, Tamsen. So Bloomsbury twenty thirty was announced on our results day. It's not a strategy.

24:18 It's a vision. And we had some shareholders to a presentation at 8 Bishopsgate that evening and explained. I was struck by the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson when I was raising the original venture capital to start Bloomsbury in 1986. And one potential venture capital backer said, don't tell me the problems you foresee. Tell me your dreams. And I thought that was a good comment because he was kind of accepting that things might go wrong as they often do at start ups. But he wants us to know how would it look if it went really, really well, which knock on wood, it it has done.

25:15 So I wanted to apply the same to the next six years. And we said verbally, but would never say in print, that my dream anyway is to get to £500,000,000 of sales up from the present 343,000,000 as soon as possible. But am I saying we'll do that by 2030? No. Because it would be a fool's game to make a a public prediction. So I'm just telling you my dream for the simple and that of the the whole team at BLOOMSBURY for the simple reason of communicating to you the ambition that we have for the future of this company and especially at this moment of so much forward momentum.

26:11 So how are we gonna do it? Through expanding our portfolio. Of course, when we wrote these slides, the Roman and Littlefield acquisition hadn't happened, happened the following week. But, of course, we hope so it might, and it's a very great addition to our portfolio in filling areas we're already in and making us considerably stronger. So our digital resources go from, in some cases, nice to have content to must have content. A big focus, as no doubt, has been true in many of your own organizations since March 2020, and the pandemic has been on our people.

27:02 And we've had nothing short of a a people revolution at BLOOMSBURY as we've treated our own staff as our most valuable assets and have shown great flexibility in the new ways of working, which are working very well in book publishing generally. So that's just one aspect of it. But the but the the the secret of BLOOMSBURY remains the combination of academic publishing with general publishing. Nobody else does that. Don't ask me why. Five of the seven activities of book publishing, legal rights, contracts, finance, production are the same, whatever kind of book you're producing.

27:54 And the value added difference is just in editorial or book commissioning on the one hand and marketing on the other. So the synergies in those five areas and cost savings from doing them together as opposed to the the different bits in the other two parts are considerable. And moreover, it gives us a great financial year. So we have the we have the summer reading boom for paperbacks in consumer books in July and August. We have the back to university, college, high school in September, August, September, October.

28:41 Then going back to the general side, we have the Christmas reading boom of November, December, followed by the end of the financial year scooping up money from university budgets before it's taken back if it's not spent on digital resources. And the same again in June with the end of the academic year. And in January, of course, we have the new year, new you boom in sales of diet books, cookery books, exercise books, well-being books. So we we kind of have the perfect balanced year.

29:27 And so developing that further is one of the big goals of BLOOMSBURY twenty thirty. Next slide, please. So there's the summary. We I'll concentrate on the right hand bullet about trading being ahead. Why did we have the confidence to make a small upgrade so early in the financial year? Well, for a very good reason. The momentum of the year to the end February that we're reporting on to you has continued unabated, and we had a great March, a great April, and now we know a great May.

30:15 So that's why we made that change. And and, of course, it was all followed by the acquisition of Roman and Littlefield, something we've wanted to do for many years. And in the end, we only bought the good bits. Well, I'm sure it's all good. But the bits we wanted, the academic parts, and we left behind the warehouse. And and and, frankly, the company itself. We we just bought the assets. And a 163 people who are moving over to us, they're based in Maryland, a new place for us. So that's the story. And Penny would be pleased to answer difficult questions, and I would be pleased to answer easy questions. Penny, over to you.

31:10 Perfect. Nigel, Penny, Tamsin, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab which is situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments for you those questions that have been submitted today, I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see we have received a number of questions both pre submitted and throughout today's live presentation. And Penny at this point if I could hand over to you just to read out the questions and share the Q and A that great. And I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. So I think one one thing that's come up in several of the questions has been to talk a bit more about the acquisition. So how we funded it, what that means for BDR, what where where we intend to see the benefits from, and what that means for our US expansion.

31:59 So I think if if I start with, you know, expanding on what Nigel's already said, this is an acquisition. We've long had it in a on a on literally the top of our wish list. So we've talked about our strategy in m and a as being academic because it is more predictable revenue streams, margins, and more opportunity for digital. We've talked about that move from print to digital. And Roman and Littlefield is all three of those things underpinned by very, very high quality content. So our sales teams have been saying for a long time, this is great content. We've we've seen great feedback already from people saying this is such good quality content. This is the stuff that students and faculties really want.

32:48 So that's been terrific from that perspective. We see opportunities for revenue to grow revenue at the moment. They have they have print and they have basic ebooks, but they have no BDR equivalent with no licensing to any other sort of BDR equivalent platforms. So that's all new, and that's all opportunities for us. So I think that was that was a key part of the question is what what can we do? And what we've done is to guide you on that is we've said that we intend to increase the BDR targets. So the current BDR target to hit for February 2028 is 37,000,000. That's our entirely organic target. And what we've said is that through this acquisition, we intend to add another 4,000,000 of revenue to that target. So that's revenue that currently does not exist.

33:38 But by creating digital, creating great data out of the the content that they currently have, We will create digital products around that and sell them to get an extra £4,000,000. So that's increasing that target to 41,000,000. And, of course, we intend to continue growing after that. We wanted to make sure everyone had a clear near term target to focus on. So the funding for this so to reiterate my point, we see revenue opportunities. They're already run very leanly, and we we we think the opportunity is all about increasing the revenue rather than taking it up cost. We've been asked about US expansion. So as you know, we already a very successful US business. As Tamsen said earlier, that's over 56% of our revenue in the year just gone.

34:33 We have a very strong management team in The US with Sabrina McCarthy who joined us at the end at the beginning of April as our new president of The US business. And she has very strong experience running Ingram as a distributor, so very strong experience not only running in the academic and consumer businesses, but also of bringing in and integrating acquisitions. So I think one of the questions was about, you know, how do we, you know, how are we confident about expanding in The US? So first of all, it's the it's what we've already achieved. Second of all, it's the strength of our team there. But third of all, it's the fact that, you know, we have just fully integrated ABC CLIO, which was a very significant acquisition for us that we made in December 2021.

35:21 We fully integrated that, and that was a print and digital academic business. So we know we can do this because we've done it before, not at this scale, but we know we, you know, we have a clear process around it. So that gives us some confidence, and I hope that does for you too. And then the final point on the the acquisition was the funding. So we've talked about our 66,000,000 of cash at the year end. And as you've seen that we took out 30,000,000 of debt funding in addition to that. And the reason for that was because we have quite lumpy cash flow. So the February year end is a high point for cash flow. Almost immediately after that, we we make a very high series of electronic payments of, which total this year totaled 23,000,000.

36:11 And so we say that's one I'm very happy to release because that's our share of, that's what the royalties that are going to the authors, and that really reflects our success. So as you can see from that, we wanted some headroom in our ongoing operations, and we've taken out a three year 30,000,000 loan, which is fully drawn down with Lloyd's to fund that. Now our forecast is that we are able to repay that well within that three year period. And, our forecast is for us to remain, in a net cash position this year, albeit at a less elevated level than we've been used to in the past. So I think that's the acquisition. If we we've had some questions about academic performance and the outlook, but I think we've covered those during the presentation.

37:03 If we can then move on to Sarah J Maas. So, Nigel, would you like to talk a bit about Sarah J Maas' outlook with her and Yes. How that's going. Okay. Well, the assumption is that we'll have a new Sarah J. Mass book at least every two years. If you if you look at the publication dates of the 16 novels that we've published to date, you'll see that's about how it works out. So whilst I am not don't have the information to say there will be one in the following year.

38:00 That's certainly my hunch. And indeed, I think on social media, she's been thought to be working away as you would when you have three series when you have to write them all. So so I think the the excitement will be great, and it just won't be in this year ending 02/28/2024. Although I should tell you the the paperback of House of Flame and Shadow, which will be a big event in itself, will come out as a new paperback edition before the end of this financial year. So we we do really have a new strategy in that. It's just that it's a paperback.

38:57 Thank you. And that's that's that that next title is one of the six that we have future titles that we have we already published. So you can see in publishing terms how strong we have that combination of new titles coming through, but but also the strengths of what we've already published over the last twelve years or so. So it's been an extraordinary journey for us and for her. One of the other authors that we've been asked about is Catherine Rundell. So as many of you noticed, she was both author of the year, book of the year, and a number of other accolades with her latest title latest latest title and first fantasy book tapping into that fantasy genre, Impossible Creatures. And we're delighted to say that there are further two books in that trilogy, and we have a contract with her for both of those books. So we're extremely excited about that.

39:48 She's, such an astonishing astonishing writer. I'm a big fan of us. We all are, actually. I most of The UKs as well. So that's. One of the other questions on the sort of coming back to the sort of group levels is would we expect to grow Would we expect our EPS to increase this year and by how much? So I think there what we will point you to is we've used the word exceptional about our trading this year, both in this presentation and in the RNS with our results. We recognize that we've had a really extraordinary year, particularly around the fantasy genre. And I think the expectation in the market which we, before these results, which was in the RNS, was that the consensus market expectation for this year, the year ended February 25, was for revenue of $284,000,000 and profit before taxation and highlighted items of 35,000,000.

40:52 So as Nigel mentioned, we we said that we provided a small upgrade to that. So we said that we would expect the revenue profit to be slightly ahead of those expectations. But I hope that gives you a steer about what we're expecting from this year. So I think I'm just checking back through the the the various questions, but I think that's covering the sort of key ones. Just give me a moment to check those. I think the only other one that we haven't talked about was BDR, the sort of why our growth is more conservative going forward compared to the extraordinary double digit growth we've seen over the past few years.

41:38 And that's really about as we go from the astonishing success. So as you as you all well know, going from naught to 26,000,000, we've we've made huge leaps as our product becomes more mature and also as the market matures slightly. That that that explains that slowing growth. So we're still expecting to see great growth. It remains very powerful. We're direct selling, high margin business, and you can see, as Nigel referenced earlier, the scale of the opportunity there. So then I think the last question, which is traditionally what we finish on, is that are there any titles that we would particularly recommend? So, Nigel, could I start with you for this? Well, the title that I would recommend to all of you, which is coming out on September 5, is called the golden road by William Dalrymple.

42:35 And it's an account of the domination of of China of India over China. In in about the year 600, the the Indians exported their religions, no less, to China. And it's just an extraordinary tale of things that you half know about but hadn't really considered before that are considerably exciting to readers. And I think it's gonna be a big bestseller. I read it myself. It's a very readable book. Absolute page turner.

43:22 So that's one. And then it would be remiss of me to not tell you about a novel with the summer reading season coming up, and I would recommend something coming out on something like the July 17, called A Mice and Murder by the, barrister, Casey Sally Smith. And set in nineteen o four, the lord chief justice is murdered with a dagger on the steps of his chambers in the inner temple on page one, and it's about a new barrister sleuth who is appointed to try to track down the murderer. It's just the most gripping, wonderful, cozy crime novel you've read in years.

44:12 Penny? Thank you. Tamsen, how about you? So at the moment because my demographic is a sort of young family, so we are reading together Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell, and then we are wading through Hugh Fernley, Wissenstalls How Sweet 30 Plants a Week. So you'll see new year, new me hopefully next year, but it will take a little while. I'm also a big fan of the the 30 plots a week. Even I've managed to cook something from it over the last few weeks. My recommendation is this one actually, How the World Made the West, four thousand years of history, which looks absolutely fantastic. Again, very readable, but incredibly interesting book. And I have just reread The Explorer by Catherine Rundell, which isn't just a fantastic book. And in the middle of year end and our results, and the acquisition, as you can imagine, that was a that was a very nice series of bit of light relief. So just reminding everyone the power of our backlist.

45:13 So with that, Nigel, can I hand back to you for some closing remarks? Just to say our great thanks to you for coming to hear more about the Bloomsbury story as it moves into new territory. We we've gone over the £500,000,000 markets capitalization. Some, we hover one side or the other of it in the the last week or so, which is a great milestone for the company as are the new records that we've set, in terms of, turnover, growth, and critical acclaim.

45:59 And we're very grateful to all of you who are our shareholders or who are considering becoming so. We have a lot more work to do, and the conditions are promising. So thank you all very much indeed. Perfect. Nigel, Penny, Tamsen, thank you for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, we automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This don't take a few minutes to complete. I'm sure you'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.