Bloomsbury seeks fresh magic in Harry Potter's wake

Online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O) and bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS.N) have enjoyed strong advanced sales of the final book.

First sales figures after publication were likely within a week of the new book hitting stores.

In October, Bloomsbury will launch boxed-set editions of the entire Potter series with the paperback edition of the last book due around July, 2008.

Bloomsbury said it had 24 bestsellers worldwide so far this year, including the No.1 UK best-seller "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini.

The company's profits in the year to end-December fell to 5.2 million pounds from 20.1 million a year ago, a drop underscored by there being no Potter paperback title last year.

Numis media analysts said they were keeping their 'hold' recommendation on Bloomsbury, partly due to uncertainty about how the group diversifies beyond the Potter franchise.

Bridgewell Securities' said the company's reference rights deals also have the potential to help restore ground lost by last year's profit warning.

Bloomsbury has recently signed long-term reference rights deals with Oxford University Press, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and historic information business ProQuest covering online versions of publications such as "Who's Who" and Web-based reference databases.

((Reporting by Gavin Haycock; editing by Paul Gallagher; gavin.haycock@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: gavin.haycock.reuters.com@reuters.net; +44 0207 5427954)) Keywords: BLOOMSBURY TRADING/

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