Jersey likes to crow about the various companies based here, everything it seems from African mining to international arms traders. Here's one that many people have heard of, Stanley Gibbons. But I'm guessing this wont make the headlines of the local commerce friendly media.
The board of directors are listed https://subscriptions.stanleygibbons.com/stanleygibbons/view/content/sg_page_whos_who You might recognise a few local names, a former chairman of the JFSC, and another former chairman of CI Traders. . It has been going 150 years, though was only brought to Jersey about 5 years ago as I recall.
Nothing dodgy there, surely a sound investment prospect?
So here's the annual report out today. Not good.
Most of the directors listed on their web site stood down over the year it seems. Rats jumping the sinking ship is the metophor that springs to mind. Actually the company appears to me to have come within a day or so of being suspened from AIM for not producing the report on time. Here are a few snippets.
Litigation
Following its acquisition of Mallett plc in October 2014, the Company learned that government regulators in the United States were investigating transactions that had occurred since 1 January 2010 involving a former client of Mallett Inc., Mallett's New York-based subsidiary. The former client is not a related person or affiliate of the Group. This issue had not been disclosed to the Company by the directors of Mallett plc during the due diligence process prior to the acquisition.
Buy back
In fact, whilst the new management team has already acted swiftly to resolve the first two cash outflows detailed above, it is the last element which has both proved more complex to isolate and represents a more fundamental deterioration in the Groups core business. It is now clear that the non-cash sale/reinvestment profile of the Stanley Gibbons Investment division`s investment contracts, sold between 2005 and 2013, which also retained an element of contractual buy-back, also fuelled the worsening net debt position.
The Group no longer offers investment plans with contractual buy back options of any kind .
A number of the Groups previous investment contracts,
Guaranteed Minimum Return Contract ("GMRC" and the Capital Protection
Growth Plan ("CPGP") both were contracts that had an element of
contractual buyback. The contractual buy backs within the CPGPs were at a
level of the original purchase price and within the GMRCs were above
the purchase price to include a finance charge. This finance charge is
recognised in the profit and loss throughout the period of the contract.
These contracts were sold between 2005 and 2013 and have resulted in a
restatement of prior year earnings relating to open contracts as at
April 2014, as described in note 31b). The GMRC and CPGP contracts
ceased to be sold in April 2011 and December 2013 respectively.
Revenue recognition
The Board has revisited the accounting treatment
previously adopted in connection with certain transactions and has
concluded that it was not in accordance with the applicable accounting
standards. Accordingly the Board has decided to adopt some,
significantly changed, accounting policies in the presentation of the
accounts. These have resulted in a restatement of prior years' results
and a substantial write-down of balance sheet assets. These changes stem
largely from fundamental errors in the accounting treatment previously
adopted, most notably of investment product "sales" recognised in
previous years.
Comments from the auditors
Matters on which we are required to report by exception
In respect solely of the limitation on our
work relating to the matters identified above in the Basis of Qualified
opinion paragraph:
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; and
we were unable to determine whether proper accounting records have been kept.
We have nothing to report in respect of
the following matters where the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 requires us
to report to you if, in our opinion:
proper returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; and
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns.
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