Stanley Gibbons to get £19.5m investment from Phoenix UK Fund

AIM-listed stamp specialist Stanley Gibbons said on Friday that it has entered into various agreements with Phoenix UK Fund which give effect to an investment of up to £19.45m, reducing the company’s debt to £10m and lifting cash resources by around £5.4m.

Phoenix - which owns train set maker Hornby - will provide a cash injection of £6.2m through a share subscription. Following the subscription, Phoenix will have a UK equity stake of 58%.

The investment will result in Phoenix acquiring £17m of Gibbons’ debt to RBS. It will also acquire the rights to the title to the debts of SG Guernsey and its stamps inventory.

The company said the investment will provide working capital headroom to enable it to complete the turnaround strategy pursued since January 2016 and will secure a strategic partner with a history of investing in brand-led consumer businesses.

Phoenix UK Fund is a Bahamian-domiciled mutual fund with around 145 underlying investors comprised of a mixture of institutional and high net worth individuals. Its investment objective is to deliver "excellent" long-term investment returns mainly from UK equities.

The fund had assets of approximately £215m under management as at 31 January 2018.

At 0920 GMT, the shares were up 22% to 5.90p.