Stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons has become the latest business to be enveloped in Asian market turmoil after revealing that weakness in the region could hit its high value sales.
The group issued a trading update after it had seen its shares plunge by more than one third since fears over a slowdown in China erupted last month.
They climbed five per cent in the latest session after Gibbons reassured investors that it was still on course to achieve market expectations for annual results for the year to the end of March.
The firm, which trades in a range of collectibles including stamps, coins, medals, banknotes and books, said it was "currently working on a number of high value sales with potential new clients" which could have an impact on first half trading.
It said: "Given weakness in particular in our Asian operations during the first half, it is currently uncertain whether high value sales completed by September 30 will be at the level required to achieve the group's internal budgets for the first half."
The group said however that "detailed dialogue is ongoing with a number of interested parties".
Gibbons added that its auction calendar for this year was more heavily weighted towards the second half than last year meaning it was "budgeted to deliver materially higher revenues and profits" in that period.
The firm also said that, after a 22 per cent rise in online revenues for the year to March, double digit growth in this area had continued in the financial year to date.
However it said its new Marketplace, allowing customers to buy from it and trusted sellers, had "yet to make a material contribution to this growth" following its launch in May and for now it was holding off from marketing investment to boost these sales.
Gibbons, founded in 1856, has its main outlet on London's Strand.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here