Stamp Auction House Escala Shares Drop after Spanish Police Raids
SmartMoney.com
Shares of Escala Group (ESCL: 12.23, -19.77, -61.8%) lost 62% of their value after Spanish police raided the Madrid offices of the company as well as those of its majority owner, Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, the world’s third-largest collectibles company. Nasdaq slapped an 82-minute trading halt on Escala shares after the morning’s precipitous plunge, putting the brakes on from 11:13 a.m. ET, when the price was down 54%, until 12:35 p.m., when the company issued a statement denying knowledge of the exact nature of the probe.
In Spain, television broadcasts were full of images of Spanish investors virtually besieging Escala’s office, demanding more information on the allegations of stamp-investing fraud. The Madrid newspaper El Pais reported that as many as 350,000 investors may have lost money. Afinsa owns about two-thirds of Escala, formerly known as Greg Manning Auctions.
Spanish national police have reportedly arrested eight people. Among those being questioned is Carlos de Figueiredo, a director of Afinsa who also sits on Escala’s board. The offices of Forum Filatelico, another Spanish stamp-trading company, were also raided. Escala still plans to hold a previously scheduled conference call Wednesday to discuss quarterly earnings, though questions surrounding the developments in Spain will surely dominate.
Phone calls to Afinsa’s office in Madrid and Escala’s New York office weren’t returned. An employee at Greg Manning Auctions in West Caldwell, N.J., referred calls to Jose Miguel Herrero, chief executive of Escala.
Escala also counts among its business units a number of small auction houses in the U.S. including Ivy & Manning Philatelic Auctions, Greg Manning Galleries, Spectrum Numismatics, Teletrade, Nutmeg Stamp Sales and Superior Sports Auctions. In Europe, the group includes Spain’s Auctentia Subastas (Afinsa Auctions), Switzerland’s Corinphila Auktionen, and the Koehler group of auction companies in Germany. In Asia, its auctions operations are conducted through John Bull Stamp Auctions, the oldest philatelic auction house in Hong Kong.
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[...] Auction Info Shares of Escala Group (ESCL: 12.23, -19.77, -61.8%) lost 62% of their value after Spanish police raided the Madrid offices of the company as well as those of its majority owner, Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, the world’s third-largest collectibles company. Nasdaq slapped an 82-minute trading halt on Escala shares after the morning’s precipitous plunge, putting the brakes on from 11:13 a.m. ET, when the price was down 54%, until 12:35 p.m., when the company issued a statement denying knowledge of the exact nature of the probe. [...]
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