Scholium carves out small profit in second half

Rare book retailer Scholium expects to post a small profit from its second trading half, putting it on track to break even for the year as a whole.

Scholium said on Friday that its small profit for the six months to 31 March 2019 would be "a modest improvement" on the interim pre-tax loss of £56,000 for the six months to 30 September 2018.

All in all, Scholium expects to have traded "similarly to the prior year" at approximately breakeven.

The AIM-listed group revealed its Scholium Trading and Mayfair Philatelics units had performed well, with Scholium Trading seeing profits come in above the previous year, while Mayfair Philatelics had a "successful second half of the year", achieving a profit from three auctions held during the period, compared to just one in the first half of the year.

Scholium did note that trading in Shapero Rare Books, however, reflected the difficult current retail environment and warned the unit's overall outcome for the year was expected to be below the prior year.

At 1030 BST, Scholium shares were down 2.12% to 41.60p.