SGI.L Regulatory News (SGI)

Friday 31 January 2014

The Stanley Gibbons Group plc

("Stanley Gibbons" or the "Company")

Acquisition of Murray Payne Ltd ("Murray Payne" or "the business")

World's leading dealer in British Commonwealth King George VI stamps

Stanley Gibbons (AIM: SGI.L) announces that it has acquired Murray Payne, the world's leading dealer in British Commonwealth King George VI stamps, for a total consideration of £1million, which will include the issue of 63,470 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"). These Ordinary Shares are subject to a three-year lock-in agreement.

Application will be made for 63,470 Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). These shares will rank pari passu with the existing shares of the Company and dealings are expected to commence on Thursday, 6th February 2014. Following Admission the Company's total issued share capital will comprise 46,597,859 Ordinary Shares.

Murray Payne was founded in 1990 by respected philatelists Stuart (Murray) Babbington and Dickon (Payne) Pollard. The business has grown to be widely regarded as a leading expert in all aspects of British Commonwealth philately with specialist knowledge in stamps and memorabilia from the reign of King George VI. The business has a long history of profitability.

Mike Hall, Chief Executive Stanley Gibbons commented: 

"This acquisition is in line with Stanley Gibbons' stated strategy of growing its market share of the rare collectibles auction market and is complementary with APEX Philatelics, which was acquired via the purchase of Noble Investments (UK) plc ("Noble") in November 2013. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and the Board of Stanley Gibbons believes it will deliver a number of strategic benefits. These include the strengthening of the auction department management team enabling us to be better placed to secure key collections.

Following the retirement of our auction director in June last year, we had a gap in our senior management team specifically in the stamp auctions arena. The acquisition of Murray Payne brings with it recognised managerial expertise, which will assist us in developing our UK stamp auctions business. The team at Murray Payne are well respected in the philatelic market and give us a wider breadth of specialist expertise in British Commonwealth stamps, which represents a key element of our brand at the same time as further enhancing the quality of our inventory in that area."

ends

For further information, please contact: