Mowbray annual gross surplus of $584,000

Media release – May 30, 2007

Mowbray Collectables posts annual gross surplus of $584,000

Listed stamp & collectables dealer and auction house Mowbray Collectables today reported an annual surplus of $584,000 before tax and goodwill amortisation, about 8.9% down on the result last year of $641,000

The company announced a dividend of 2.5c (3.0c last year).

The net deficit after tax and amortisation of goodwill was $186,791, compared with the $151,526 net deficit last year. Mowbray has amortised goodwill of $569,000 and made provision for $201,502 in tax for the financial year to March 31.

Since listing six years ago, Mowbray has amortised over $2 million of goodwill on its asset acquisitions.

Managing director John Mowbray said he was very pleased that the NZ-based operations had traded to expectations with good growth recorded in the monthly stamp auctions and in the International Stamp Auction.

He said, however, that the result was affected by the delay in the Bonhams & Goodman $7 million inaugural Melbourne auction which would have added $200,000 had it not been postponed from March to April due to the auction showroom fit out delay. Mowbrays own 20 percent of Bonhams & Goodman.

``It was also impacted by the rescheduling of Peter Webb Galleries’ recent sale from the last week of March to the beginning of April. Mowbrays own 49 percent of Webbs, which despite a slowing in the art market enjoyed a good year.”

``Webb’s management has restructured operations following the resignation of senior staff to form a new auction company in Auckland. We are confident that Webbs will maintain its leading position in the highly competitive Auckland market. ‘’

Another Mowbrays associate company, Wildlife Philatelic Collections, the Australian agent for the World Wide Fund for nature stamp programme, having invested heavily in a marketing programme in the previous year, reaped the benefit and produced a strong result.

Following a disappointing result by Stanley Gibbons (Australia), the directors have decided to reorganise its structure and relinquish the Stanley Gibbons Licence at the end of the year, due to the constraints imposed on the licence use, particularly the inability to use the internet.

The company will be rebranded under the Mowbray name, similar to the successful rebranding when the Stanley Gibbons licence expired in New Zealand in 1999. A major introductory sale under the Mowbray brand will be held in Melbourne in February 2008 to launch the new structure.

Chairman Murray Radford said trading in the first two months of the new financial year was above budget. He predicted an improved result for the current year which will be helped with the introduction of new accounting standards that will remove the need to amortise assets that have maintained or improved their investment carrying values.

ENDS

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