Harry Potterpublisher Bloomsbury's full-year pretax profit fell by nearly 75 per cent to £5.2 million in line with a warning it gave in December.
The December warning was due to tough pre-Christmas trading, fewer bestsellers and the company not completing budgeted reference rights sales by the year-end.
Pretax profit in the year to end-December fell to £5.2 million from £20.1 million a year ago, while group turnover dropped 31.5 per cent to £74.8 million from £109.1 million.
Analysts on average had been forecasting a pretax profit of £5.44 million and revenue of £79 million.
But Bloomsbury said it had seen a good start to the current year with a strong pipeline of new books by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, and JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- the final book in the series.
Bloomsbury Chairman Nigel Newton said the company felt it had a growth strategy that would develop new authors, incorporate new web-based initiatives, and include acquisitions.
The publisher said the dynamics in the publishing industry were changing at a time when its margins were being crimped by pricing pressure from retailers as well as pressure from authors' agents for advances.
The company's final dividend was held at 3.0 pence, while the full-year payout was raised to 3.66 pence from 3.60 pence.
Shares in the company closed at 190-1/2 pence yesterday, valuing the business at around £140 million.