J.K. firm’s £7m profit – after taking Covid cash

WHILE so many people are facing challenging financial times, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is laughing all the way to Gringotts Bank as her TV and stage company has just revealed a £6.9million annual profit.

And given she also has a personal fortune of about £820million, you may be forgiven for asking why her companies ever felt the need to claim taxpayer-funded Covid handouts.

J.K.’s firms received cash from both the UK’s furlough scheme and a US fund called the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant after her Harry Potter shows were forced to close in the West End and on Broadway.

The profit was reported by her firm Bronte Film and Television Ltd, which oversees TV dramatisations of her Cormoran Strike detective novels and is the ultimate parent of the companies that take money from the stage productions of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child from across the world – Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Ltd and HP West End Ltd.

The £6.9million profit, up to the end of October 2020, was a jump of £2.2 million on the previous year, and the company is sitting on a cash surplus of £14 million.

Bronte’s annual report, filed at Companies House, disclosed that the profit came despite a small fall in turnover to £17 million, from £18 million the previous year. In the report, company director Neil Blair, J.K.’s literary agent, told how income was ‘driven by fees and profit shares for theatrical productions’ but that all five Harry Potter shows – in London, New York, Melbourne, San Francisco and Hamburg – had to close in March last year as the pandemic struck.

HP West End claimed £665,402 in furlough cash in the first half of this year, the only period for which figures have been released. The Bronte report confirms that Harry Potter Theatrical Productions Ltd, which looks after overseas interests, took grants from the US equivalent of furlough. No figure was available.

There is no suggestion that J.K. oversaw the decision to make the furlough claims.

The London show reopened this month, and the Broadway production returns on November 12. Melbourne reopened in February but has been hit by more lockdowns. Remaining shows plus new ones in Tokyo and Toronto could open in the coming months.

A spokesman for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child said: ‘Covid-19 measures prevented theatres from opening, and the producers committed to the ongoing financial survival of the production, as part of an industry currently in crisis.

‘With ticket revenue halted, the producers of the play, alongside all major productions on the West End, have a responsibility to staff, casts, and private investors to save costs and investigate all available support, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme where applicable, insurance claims, and any other government loans or measures, until theatres are able to reopen.’