Magic

Rowling finished Harry Potter 6. Will it suck? Or will it blow?

Bloomsbury Rises as Rowling Finishes 6th Harry Potter (Update1)

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Shares in Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the U.K. publisher of the Harry Potter books, rose the most in almost 18 months after author J.K. Rowling said she finished the manuscript of the sixth book in the series.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is completed and has been delivered to my English-language publishers, who hope to announce the publication date within 24 hours,” Rowling said in a statement on her Web site dated Dec. 20. Bloomsbury spokesman Tim Spratt said the company wouldn’t comment.

Visitors to Rowling’s web site, http://www.jkrowling.com , have to answer three questions and solve three riddles to get the announcement.

Bloomsbury shares gained as much as 14 pence, or 5.1 percent, to 287.5 pence and traded at that level at 9:26 a.m. in London.

The Harry Potter titles have sold 250 million copies worldwide, fueling revenue growth at London-based Bloomsbury and their U.S. publisher, Scholastic Corp. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in a planned series of seven books, sold 1.78 million copies in the U.K. on its first day of sale in June last year.

Rowling debuted on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires this year with a net worth of $1 billion. Movies featuring the boy wizard have grossed more than $2 billion worldwide.

The fourth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is scheduled to be released late next year. It is produced by Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Pictures and directed by Mike Newell, who made Mona Lisa Smile and Four Weddings and a Funeral.