"A Thousand Splendid Suns" shines on Bloomsbury

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) - Bloomsbury Publishing (BLPU.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Friday its operating performance since the start of the year had been encouraging following the success of Khaled Hosseini's books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

The group, best known for publishing the Harry Potter books, said it had seen continued strong performances from a number of titles and it was trading in line with management's expectations.

"The group continues to make progress in all areas," it said in a statement. "The measures that we are taking to reduce costs are already delivering positive results."

"Company acquisitions are very much at the forefront of the group's growth strategy. We have a very strong balance sheet which puts us in a good position to take advantage of opportunities as they arise."

The group also said cash flow had been stronger than expected as a result of a tougher book acquisition policy, the cost-control programme in progress across the group and lower than expected returns of unsold books.

The specialist publishing division was also performing to management's expectations, it said.

Analysts at Numis described the statement as upbeat and said they would retain their "buy" recommendation on its shares.

Shares in the group were up 1.9 percent at 150 pence at 0720 GMT. (Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by Will Waterman)