Bloomsbury battles to weather coronavirus storm

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Bloomsbury furloughs staff, slashes executive pay and raises emergency cash from investors as it tries to weather coronavirus crisis

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Published: | Updated:

Bloomsbury has furloughed staff, slashed executive pay and raised emergency cash from investors as it tries to weather the virus crisis. 

The Harry Potter publisher is cutting the salaries of ‘the majority of staff’ with board members taking a 30 per cent reduction, to save £230,000 per month. 

Flying into turbulence: The Harry Potter publisher is cutting the salaries of ‘the majority of staff’ with board members taking a 30 per cent reduction

Bloomsbury said it would also furlough staff under the Government’s jobs retention scheme, which pays 80 per cent of staff wages up to £2,500 a month for businesses struggling because of the pandemic. 

And in another effort to cut costs, it said it would not propose a cash dividend. 

Bloomsbury also issued new shares at a discounted price in a bid to rapidly raise cash that will help it survive the economic impact of the pandemic. 

It said 3,766,428 had been issued at a price of 223.25p each, raising £8.4m. 

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