Bloomsbury is banking on the heavy anticipation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to mitigate its declining profit.

The firm experienced a 48% decline in profits in the first half of this year, from £1.8m a year earlier to £949,000 this year in the same period.

Bloomsbury usually does better in the second half.

This coming November, Harry Potter books with new jackets will be launched to coincide with the film version of the final novel.

The publishing company will feature a repackaging of The Wombles series hopefully to bolster sales. It also announced a deal to publish electronically the papers of Sir Winston Churchill.

Sales in the United Kingdom rose by 12.6% with the takeover of professional and academic publisher Tottel last year.

For this year, analysts say that Bloomsbury had been dragged down by economic uncertainty between April and June.

Bloomsbury had been expanding its operations to make more acquisitions in what it calls as "strategically important areas." It now has operations in North America and mainland Europe. Next year, the company will launch ist operation in Australia.