6 Oct 2015 07:00
THE STANLEY GIBBONS GROUP PLC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6 October 2015
THE STANLEY GIBBONS GROUP PLC ("the Company" or "the Group")
Trading Update
The Board of Stanley Gibbons provides an update to the market on its estimated results for the interim six month period ended 30 September 2015, and a trading outlook for the second half.
Six months ended 30 September 2015
Progress was made in September on completing some high value sales with new and existing clients. Even with this progress, sales achieved for the first six months were only at a similar level to the same period last year, despite the inclusion of sales from the Mallett acquisition completed in October 2014.
Gross margins and profits are expected to be substantially below those of the same period last year, which benefited from high margin sales of material sold from exceptional purchases of major collections.
Outlook for second half
The Board expects that the Company will deliver materially higher revenue and profit in the second half of the financial year. As reported previously, the Group's auction calendar for 2015/16 is more heavily weighted towards the second half. The Group also continues to work on a number of initiatives with the aim of delivering substantial sales from our strong stockholding 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 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.
For further information, contact:
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc
Michael Hall, Chief Executive +44 (0) 1534 766711
Donal Duff, Chief Finance Officer
Peel Hunt LLP, NOMAD/Broker
Dan Webster/Richard Brown/George Sellar +44 (0) 20 7418 8900
Tavistock
Lulu Bridges/Niall Walsh +44 (0) 20 7920 3150