Stanley Gibbons has risen 300% this year and 30% in 6 weeks. Several institutions appear interested in building up a stockholdind. GET ON BOARD!

Strong set of numbers today and price has held up well after recent strong run. IMO still not expensive on fundamentals, but always dyor.

I've had my eye on these for a while, but as yet, haven't acted. Nice to see an 8% increase in the final dividend and 9% in total dividend.

Online sales double - must be doing something right. Check out interview http://www.brrmedia.co.uk/event/96755/michael-hall-ceo

Stanley Gibbons confident of growth
Date: Friday 10 Aug 2012


Collectibles dealer Stanley Gibbons reported rising interim profits and has forecast growth for the rest of the year ‘irrespective of economic conditions’ as it continues to lead the way in sourcing rare stamps.

The firm, which has set thousands of youngsters on the path to a life-time of stamp collecting, declared profits before tax for the first half of the year of £1.8m, up 8% on the same period of 2011, although sales were down 2% at £14.7m.

Online sales grew 90%, and this is clearly a growth area for the firm which felt confident enough to declare an interim dividend up 10% on 2011 at 2.75p per share.

Stock levels are valued at £24.5m as the firm prepares for the launch of a rare stamp fund in October.

The Chairman, Martin Bralsford, commented: “As a result of the success in sourcing of key philatelic rarities, the group is in a strong position to deliver growth in the remainder of the current year, irrespective of economic conditions, which is expected to include the launch of a rare stamp fund in October.

“The fund will be regulated and open to sophisticated investors and hold some of the most famous and best quality philatelic items at attractive

SGI performing strongly on the back of solid trading update and recent fundraising/acquisition of bidstart, a US based onile collectibles platform. No debt as at end of 2012, which should see results "in line with market expectations." Bidstart might be a bit of a gamble, although potential rewards look worth the risks imo - but always dyor.

Take a listen to the Stanley Gibbons Group talking about their recent results.

Click here

LISTEN: Michael Hall, CEO of Stanley Gibbons Group, provides a trading update

Click here to listen

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons and Mallett have reached agreed on the terms of a recommended cash offer to be made by TFAAG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stanley Gibbons, for the whole of the issued and to be issued share capital of Mallett.

The Offer will be 60 pence per Mallett Share payable in cash, which values the issued and to be issued share capital of Mallett at about £8.6 million.

This represented a premium of about 23.7 per cent. to the Closing Price of 48.5 pence per Mallett Share on 26 September 2014 (being the last Business Day prior to the date of this announcement).

It also represented a premium of about 11.1 per cent. to the average Closing Price per Mallett Share of approximately 54.0 pence over the three month period ended 26 September 2014 (being the last Business Day prior to the date of this announcement).

TFAAG has received irrevocable undertakings to accept the Offer in respect of a total of 10,247,700 Mallett Shares, representing, in aggregate, approximately 74.3 per cent. of Mallett's existing issued share capital.

These irrevocable undertakings to accept the Offer demonstrate the support for the Offer from Mallett Shareholders.

Included within these irrevocable undertakings are irrevocable undertakings from the Mallett Directors to accept the Offer in respect of their entire legal and beneficial holdings, representing, in aggregate, 24,200 Mallett Shares, representing approximately 0.2 per cent. of the existing issued share capital of Mallett.

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons's H1 pretax profit has roared ahead to £3.7m, from £0.55m a year ago. Revenue spiked up to £27.1m, from £17.2m. It declared an interim dividend of 3.25p a share, from 3p.

Chairman Martin Bralsford said the enlarged group delivered a strong trading performance in the six months ended 30 September 2014, which included trading profits of £2.4m contributed from the acquisition of Noble and Murray Payne in November last year.

The growth in like-for-like profits of 93% in the period was primarily the result of the initial crystallisation of returns from some recent exceptional purchases of major high quality collections," Bralsford said in the results statement.

"The recent acquisition of Mallett on 20 October 2014 significantly enhances the Group's authority in fine antiques and decorating arts, consolidating its influence across the broad market for collectibles," he said.

"In particular, the acquisition provides a stronger online auction platform to enhance our stated strategy to become a leading online collectibles marketplace and global auction house for fine and decorative arts, collectibles and other valuables.

"As a result of the strength of the Group's combined expertise, international reach and loyal client base, your Board believes there are substantial opportunities to increase market share and to consolidate the market further, particularly from the commercialisation of our recently launched online marketplace."

Key operational highlights:

· Important milestone in the delivery of online strategy with the "soft launch" in November 2014 of the online collectibles marketplace, which can be viewed at marketplace.stanleygibbons.com, with the "hard launch" release scheduled for Q1, 2015

· The integration of Baldwin's with their move to our retail flagship premises at 399 Strand, London was completed to plan and opened for trading on Monday 27 October

· Sale of Baldwin's freehold property at 11 Adelphi Terrace, London for a consideration of £4.5m, with completion scheduled on 17 November 2014

· Acquisition of Mallett plc ("Mallett") on 20 October 2014 for a total cash consideration of £8.8m, excluding deal costs, together with net debt in the Mallett business of £1.4m. This represents a 22% discount compared to the £11.3m carrying book cost of Mallett inventories

· Advantage taken of a number of exceptional opportunities to purchase high value quality collections providing benefit from sales to high net worth clients during the period

· Noble and Murray Payne acquisitions contributed £2.4m to trading profits in the period with integration benefits and cross selling opportunities being delivered in line with plan

Stanley Gibbons provides an update to the market on its estimated results for the preceding financial year ended 31 March 2015, and a trading outlook for the current year.

New research note at http://tinyurl.com/o8vv5ay

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons has posted an improved FY pretax profit of £3.1m, from a year-ago profit of £2.2m. Revenue was £56.9m, from £51.8m. Total dividend was 5p a share, against 7p for the preceding 15 months.

Chairman Martin Bralsford commented:

"The successful launch of the Stanley Gibbons Online Marketplace in May this year represented a key milestone towards delivery of the Group's long term strategy.

"The launch marks the beginning of our mission to provide people with the best marketplace for collectibles, built on a community of honest and knowledgeable collectors.

"Our recent acquisitions provide the Group with a breadth and depth of internal expert knowledge and trusted brands in their respective fields providing the base from which to deliver on our stated strategy to become a global auction house supported by a professional online auction platform.

"The Board therefore remains confident that the strength of the market twinned with the expected return from the delivery of our strategy, particularly from the commercialisation of our recently launched Online Marketplace, provides material profit growth potential in the current financial year and beyond."

OUTLOOK
· The quality of our stockholding provides the opportunity to deliver growth in sales and profits in the current year

· One of the high value sales, which failed to complete by the year end, was completed in April 2015

· Following the launch of the Stanley Gibbons Online Marketplace on 21 May 2015 growth in visitor numbers and GMV has been encouraging. We are focussed on delivering material growth in GMV and will be in a better position to report on the performance of our new website when our interim results are announced in November

· The market for rare collectibles and fine and decorative arts remains buoyant evidenced by some high profile realisations, which included the highest price realised for the sale of a single stamp in June 2014, the 1c magenta from British Guiana, for $9.5m.

We aren’t convinced the business in its current form with heaps of cash tied up in long term inventory and the potential for lumpy high value transactions makes for a happy stock market animal, we shall see!

See more at http://tinyurl.com/pmb7qv4

Profit warning.

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons expects it will deliver materially higher revenue and profit in H2, but cautioned it was unlikely to meet market forecasts for the FY.

As reported previously, the Group's auction calendar for 2015/16 is more heavily weighted towards H2, the company said in a trading update. It continued to work on a number of initiatives with the aim of delivering substantial sales from its stock of rare collectibles.

"Furthermore, following the completion of the integration and rationalisation of recent acquisitions, the Group will benefit from a reduced fixed cost base and better cross selling of products and services across our customer base in the second half," the company said in a trading update.

"The Group continues to embark on its strategy to evolve and diversify business operations to an online and auction business model with more predictable revenues streams and profits.

"The Directors believe that the opportunity to materially grow shareholder value through the continued implementation of our online Marketplace and global auction business remains a positive proposition.

"On the basis of the performance in the first half, the Board now believes that, as a result of the weakness being experienced in our Asian operations and the continued illiquidity in high value stock items, it is unlikely that the Group will achieve the market forecast for the full year."

though philately has a strong following, buying stamps as an (alternative) investment has never had any appeal for me as there seems no way to get true valuation let alone to gauge the potential ...... unlike both 1st growth bordeaux or diamonds (as stones only)

They trade lots of other items, such as autographs, memorabilia etc but surely collectibles are only worth what someone else is prepared to pay? Catalogue prices are only a guide. Much like fine wines, imo, which are traded for their rarity value rather than for drinking.

fine wines are much easier to track for all sorts of good reasons - eg there are plenty of fine wine auctions so current prices can easily be followed

personally, i buy even fine wines for drinking and though some of mine are worth a few bob, i'ld rather drink them with friends (if i can find any) than sell them


diamonds
there is a weekly list issued which values stones by all the usual - carat, cut, clarity and colour - so easily and accurately valued

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons has posted an H1 pretax profit of GBP0.4m, from a year-ago profit of GBP3.7m. There would be no interim dividend. Sales totalled GBP27.0m, from GBP27.1m.

The outfit's like-for-like sales, excluding the Mallett acquisition, were GBP21.6m, down 21% on the year.

Chairman Martin Bralsford commented:
"As indicated in our latest update of 6 October 2015, the trading performance of the Group in the past twelve month period has failed to achieve what were, in retrospect, premature and over-optimistic expectations from the investments of the past two years.

"The year has been a period of transition for the Stanley Gibbons Group from a business based on philately to a broader based collectibles group with significant on-line distribution potential.

"Since early September, Senior Management has been focused on putting in place the right organisation structure and team to execute strategy in accordance with the Board's expectations.

"Your Board believes significant progress has been made. The integration of acquisitions and management change has clearly represented a distraction to short term sales initiatives, particularly from our sizeable philatelic inventory, contributing to the sharp decline in trading performance."

A lot of sales for minimal profit!!!!!!

StockMarketWire.com
Stanley Gibbons note the recent move in its share price and said it was considering a number of fundraising alternatives to reinforce the working capital position prior to the year ended 31 March 2016.

"However, whilst an equity fundraising is one option potentially available to the Board, the discount to the Group's net asset value at which any such fundraising would likely be priced could make it a relatively unattractive route to alternatives under consideration," it said.

"The Directors will update the market on the progress of these considerations in due course."