Stanley Gibbons Share Discussion Threads

[nurdin] 04/3/2004 19:02

luvely..jubbly thanks pze1.I haven't sold a single share since buying them at 38p..I firmly believe this is just a start of a superb growth story.I have gone through the reasons many a times on this board so will not bore you again... take it from me that the market for collectables specially in the emerging markets is on the increase and is likely to remain so for the forseable future.Either they will make an acquistion to bolster their global campaign..or the likes of ebay will take them out.The asking price? Not less than 270p I promise you!..
Read IC comment tomorrow...

[kael] 04/3/2004 18:31

I wanna buy more lower dammit!

[smow1] 04/3/2004 18:30

Wonder how many tips this share needs before it starts to motor on upwards ?. Lost count now.

[pze1] 04/3/2004 18:03

This weeks AM Review Newsletter included this

Stanley Gibbons - On Firm (Stamping) Ground?

September 2000, and the venerable, but ever adaptable, Stanley Gibbons trotted on to the pitch again to play his latest match. For in the guise of Communitie.com, demerged from Flying Flowers, the 140-year old stamp company, still located in the Strand, led a new team in a new medium; and that medium is the internet of course.

In addition to postage stamps, collectors of other items are catered for. Another subsidiary company within the then Communitie Group concentrated on autographs; and, through Collectorcafe.com, a site which offers a friendly mien to other dealers, auctioneers, and special interest publishers, a channel is open to enthusiasts in more than 90 other product categories.

But stamps would seem to be the thing. In addition to Stanley Gibbons itself in its dot com manifestation, yet another site run by the group runs an instant catalogue listing of approved new issue stamps, using the power of the internet to avoid the delays which are a necessary part of the hard-copy process.

Put bluntly, the figures suggested that the core business had failed to prosper under Flying Flowers. Background factors included housekeeping in the shape of exceptional stock adjustments, the transfer of a division in July 1999, and the investment in the internet. But the Admission Document to AIM pointed out that when the lacklustre figures were adjusted for these factors, the core performance had at least been rock steady.

The true shape of the company was far from clear from a perusal of the maiden, December 2000, figures in the new format. Ignoring the £400,000 which the internet site cost, the operating loss was £226,000. The best that could be said indeed was that the company was generating cash and performing well against the 2001 business plan. The less quantifiable level of risk was the degree to which consumer acceptance of the internet as a trading mechanism was central to the search for the resumption of growth, although visitor numbers to date were said to be highly encouraging.

The figures to December 2001 provided no evidence of any dramatic sales expansion, so that the cyberspace costs were still apparently far removed from any visible change to the basic situation. And that situation is that the costs still jostle the gross margin leaving nothing for the shareholders at this level even if a profit on the sale of a property which eliminated group indebtedness also threw in enough to generate token earnings too. "Communitie.com" was short-lived as the company changed to The Stanley Gibbons Group Limited.

Stanley Gibbons, it seemed, must have an immense depth of goodwill; its magazine still sells 20,000 copies a month; and it will come as a surprise to many that the company still commands only about 1% of the world's stamp market. The degree to which the market failed to warm to the AIM company was illustrated by the management's buy back of 2 million shares in 2001.

And in reporting for the year to December 2002, sales may have been static, but a margin improvement coupled with very tight cost control delivered a clean 2p of earnings per share, and saw £700,000 lodged snugly in the bank. By the time the June 2003 interim figures were posted, that same tight management had screwed more than £100,000 more at the pre-tax level from lower sales, but only 1p per share alas, after a visit from the tax man. Meanwhile the Chairman broods on how to turn the brand name into the money-spinner that he thinks it ought to be.

A welcome 2003 Christmas present was the NASDAQ flotation of the previously-named Proflowers in which Stanley Gibbons has a £200,000 investment - now worth £1.7 million, and called Provide Commerce Inc.

This week it was announced that the intention was to distribute surplus cash, and the proceeds which the disposal of the holding in Provide Commerce will create, as a special dividend. Meanwhile the Chairman's statement which carried this information was accompanied by the December 2003 full-year figures, which saw increased sales and margins attained against a background of reduced costs, almost doubling the earnings per share, 3.6p, in the process. The cherry was duly popped on the cake too with the news that the strong trading which was a feature of the final quarter had continued into the early months of the current campaign.

The shares are 75p, and all-in-all, do not look very dear.

[cockneyrebel] 04/3/2004 16:49

Oh, that's so, so good :-)

I'll cancel my issue that I had on order for tomorrow now :-)

A pound by the AGM or more, still my bet.

Enjoy - and thank's again for the lead to this one nurdin - I owe you - but no tongues this time :-)

CR

[deltrotter] 04/3/2004 16:49

Thanks Ravello

[ravello] 04/3/2004 16:15

This week's IC runs the following piece on SGI under the general heading 'Sure things':

Stanley Gibbons (SGI: 77p)

Stamp collecting may invoke images of lonely middle-aged men in dirty rain coats, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact, there has been a renaissance in stamp collecting in the past few years as investors - wounded by the equity bear market - have pushed cash into alternative investments. Stanley Gibbons, the oldest name in stamps, has been a major beneficiary. So have readers who followed our advice to buy shares in the company a year ago - they have since more than quadrupled. But despite this stellar performance, there should be more upside to come.

Last week, the company announced that it had more than doubled pre-tax profits to £1.2m last year - even better than brokers had anticipated. Paul Fraser, the chairman, also gave a pretty positive outlook statement commenting that: "The strong performance in the last quarter of 2003 has continued into the first two months of 2004." Cash generation was excellent with net funds swelling to £1.9m and shareholders can expect further news, by the end of June, on when some of this cash will be returned to them in the form of special dividends or by a share buy-back programme.

Stanley Gibbons' shareholding in Nasdaq-listed online flower retailer Provide Commerce has proved a success as well. With shares in the e-tailer trading at $21, the Stanley Gibbons shareholding is worth £2.5m against a carrying value of only £223,000 in its accounts. And this isn't some flaky dot-com, either. Provide Commerce is expected to generate sales of $116m this year, and, more importantly, 77 cents of post tax earnings - giving support to its valuation. In other words, almost a quarter of the philatelist's £18.8m market value is in liquid assets. Strip that out and the company's adjusted market value of £14.5m is hardly heady stuff, especially when you consider that profits will get another boost this year from the letting of a vacant property in Ringwood at the tail end of 2003. Estimates of £2m pre-tax profits look eminently achievable.

With a solid balance sheet, improved trading and cash to be returned to shareholders, the company gets our stamp of approval.

[deltrotter] 04/3/2004 15:37

Hmmm, sells being soaked up easily.

Tip tomorrow may be a nightmare for the MMs if they are trying to fill an order.

Cheers

Del

[clocktower] 04/3/2004 14:25

lol..K . Thats a friend of mine your speaking about K....d..e..s..t..roy!

As K mentioned or you can chat away about anything on GLD thread..nobody minds. Then I could pass it on...:-))

[kael] 04/3/2004 12:12

Head to the strand - they have 2 shops there. Near the Savoy.

Cant miss it really - there is a life-size Dalek in the shopwindow ;)

[daza75] 04/3/2004 12:11

I would like to make contact with someone within the firm for a chat (business)

[clocktower] 04/3/2004 09:15

Daza75..Why do you want to know and what do you want to know? :-))

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 19:29

I'd have held to the AGM at least Shares/IC and the small cap tip sheets to come - one or two must tip it imo.

The fact it hasn't come back much after such a run says to me there will be big buying on the next dip.

Good luck tho - a profit's a profit.

CR

[simonevans] 03/3/2004 19:02

I was one of the small sellers - sold 60% of my holding for 2.5 times what I paid for it. Given how far this has come along, thought it best to take some profits. Still looks encouraging though, so I will keep the rest for a while. There's bound to be some profit taking at this stage though.

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 16:39

Orange1 - sorry, you're right, apologies.

I'm interested that the share price never moved today despite some small selling - I don't reckon the buyer of those shares is done - someones taking the sells.

Shares or IC must tip these this week imo - small company tip sheets should too I reckon.

CR

[daza75] 03/3/2004 16:30

Does anyone know someone who works for the company?

[orange1] 03/3/2004 15:51

Don't think you're right CR. The company issued the shares to the directors - the company did not buy them in the market to give to the directors. The directors sold (with the exception of 25000 shares) all the shares issued to them for 72p. By the looks of it 470000 shares were then sold on by a MM to a favoured purchaser for 72p. The rest were kept by the MM to be sold for 79p or to be handed over as settlement of purchases already made at a price well above 72p.
And everyone is a winner!

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 14:33

They may well say at the AGM - hence my reasoning that this will be a profitable period to hold imo.

CR

[kael] 03/3/2004 14:30

I know in theory it shouldnt matter, but it always seems that buybacks dont have an immediate impact.

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 14:29

Could be a mix of both I guess - 8p special divi and upto 10% buy back?

13p divi would be better if the share price runs away tho, imo.

CR

[kael] 03/3/2004 14:17

mmm.. I would prefer a better divi than a buyback tbh.

[deltrotter] 03/3/2004 14:15

Question is, how many shares can they buy back. And what kind of effect will that have on the price?

Cheers

Del

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 14:13

Large trades were effectively the company buying shares in the market to fill options and director selling or going over 30%.

I was half right then :-)

That's the reason they had no effect on the price Smow1.

CR

[kael] 03/3/2004 14:13

Stanley Gibbons Group Limited
03 March 2004


The Stanley Gibbons Group Limited
('Stanley Gibbons' or 'the Company')

Further issue and Directors' dealings

The Company announces that, following the exercise of an option over 540,540
Ordinary Shares by Paul Fraser and an option over 50,000 Ordinary Shares by
Richard Purkis, it has today issued a total of 590,540 new Ordinary Shares of 1p
each.

Paul Fraser, whose shareholding in the Company exceeded 29.6%, which, under the
rules of the Takeover Code, prevented him from exercising and retaining his
option, has sold 540,540 Ordinary Shares at 72p each. Following the sale his
holding in the Company remains at 7,301,719 Ordinary Shares which now represents
28.93% of the enlarged issued share capital of Stanley Gibbons.

Richard Purkis has sold 25,000 Ordinary Shares at 72p each, making his
shareholding 25,000 Ordinary Shares, which represents 0.99% of the enlarged
issued share issue of the Company.

Application has been made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading
on AIM and admission is expected to take place on 9 March 2004.

The Company confirms its intention to return surplus cash to shareholders by
means of a share buyback in the immediate future.



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange


there is your answer.

[cockneyrebel] 03/3/2004 12:54

Doesn't matter what they are does it? You can calculate the value for yourself, the growth, the PE and the net return we'll get in a special divi or buyback and see these are cheap.

Imagine we have the cash returned now, already, 13p a share say. You are buying these at 66p, historic PE 18, foreward PE 11 and all that growth, approaching triple digit this year again.

Just as a note tho, those trades could be director taking profits to supply institutrional demand perhaps.

Also possible tho, it was around £750K worth of shares traded today - half the cash the company has approx - they mentioned they were returning cash and the value of PVRD sale - have they used the cash in a share buyback already?

All guess work, but it matters not - these are dirt cheap and will be rising on any Shares/IC tip or in advance of the April AGM imo.

CR