Bloomsbury hopes to read profits in India

LONDON (ShareCast) - Bloomsbury Publishing is to turn a new page in India, with the formation of a wholly owned subsidiary in the subcontinent. The new business will be headed up by Rajiv Beri, who has been Managing Director of Macmillan's Indian operations for over 15 years. This is an evolution rather than revolution for Bloomsbury which has operated in the country for 25 years through a marketing partnership with Penguin (SES: E2:P13.SI - news) . The new division will attempt to leverage the large range of titles it already owns as well as develop Indian authorship. Indians (Other OTC: INDN.PK - news) buy 50m English books every year and is expected to be a big market for ebooks. News of the expansion initially saw Bloomsbury shares gain nearly 2% although they have since retreated and by 10.01 were down 0.81% on yesterday's close. Over the last year the firm's stock has done quite well, showing gains of 10%. BS