Mowbray to sell its stamp and coins businesses

Friday 12th December 2014

Mowbray Collectables, the unprofitable listed auction house business, has put its stamp, coin and bank note trading businesses up for sale in a bid to enhance shareholder value and reposition the company.

The Wellington based company will sell its wholly owned subsidiaries Mowbray Bethunes and Wildlife Philatelic, it said in a statement. Given the close involvement of chief executive John Mowbray with both businesses it has set up a sub-committee of its independent directors, to be chaired by Chris Swasbrook to manage the sale.

The sale comes after the company embarked on a review after it widened its first half loss to $1.99 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from a loss of $700,000 a year earlier, describing it as "the worst six months in the company's history". Poor trading at its Mowbray Bethunes and Peter Webb Galleries combined with one off restructuring costs led to a $1.28 million non cash write down of goodwill across all its cash generating units.

The company has shifted its focus solely to New Zealand, with the exception of its stamp collection business in Australia, and purchased the 51 percent of its major business, Webb's gallery in Auckland, it didn't already own in a bid to return to profitability. Since taking full control of Webb's operational results have underperformed forecasts presented during the valuation, and "it is now clear that the purchase price of the 51 percent was too high," the company said in November.

In August, John Mowbray told shareholders he would be step down as chief executive after 12 years heading the company, and said he was "conscious that we have not achieved what I set out to do, to grow a significant sized company on the NZX." The company listed on the stock market in April 2000.

Shares of Mowbray were unchanged at 30 cents and have fallen 29 percent since the start of the year.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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