Stanley Gibbons sells elements of Interiors division

Shares in Stanley Gibbons are down almost 3% after it confirmed the sale of elements of its Interiors division and updated on its emergence from a period of restructuring to focus on its future and core businesses.

"Despite the upheaval of the last 15 months, the resilient and inherent value of our brands has continued to be recognised across the industry and we look forward to ensuring that this is reflected in shareholder value," the stamp and coin collecting specialist said.

Stanley Gibbons has agreed the sale of certain assets and liabilities of Dreweatts and the intellectual property rights and goodwill in respect of the Mallett and Made by Meta brands, all currently part of its Interiors division.

It said the sale assets would be transferred into a newly incorporated company that the group had agreed to sell to Millicent Holdings Ltd for £2.4m, with £2.25m of that on completion and £0.15m on 30 November.

The group would retain the Mallett inventory, the rental income from the former Mallett New York premises, the Bloomsbury auction and retail business and its interests in Masterpiece London Ltd and other associated companies.

This would allow Stanley Gibbons to derive additional value from the Interiors division in the coming months.

It was intended that proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce bank debt, support the ongoing rationalisation exercise and to provide additional working capital.

Stanley Gibbons continued that over the past year it had implemented major operational and organisational change, whilst dealing with legacy legal and accounting matters.

"The steps taken to date have ensured that we have far exceeded our original cost saving targets, where annualised operating cost reductions, prior to the Sale, would have exceeded £10m," it said.

"There will undoubtedly be further challenges ahead but following the Sale and taking into account the cost reduction measures that we have already taken the Group can finally start to look to the future and focus on its core businesses."

At 14:02 BST, shares in AIM-quoted Stanley Gibbons were donw 2.82% to 8.62p each.