Murray Radford resigns as chairman of Mowbray as company renames as Bethunes

Murray Radford will retire as chairman of Mowbray Collectibles [NZX: MOW] as the auction house prepares to rename as Bethunes after selling units and repaying debt.

Radford will end 15 years on the Mowbray board and Christopher Swasbrook will act as chairman until a replacement is found, the Wellington-based collectibles company said in a statement. Mowbray settled the sale of subsidiaries Mowbray Bethunes and Wildlife Philatelic to founder and outgoing managing director John Mowbray on Wednesday and is to change its name as part of the deal.

The company said it has retired its debt with ANZ Bank, but its remaining operating business, Auckland art gallery Webb's still has $900,000 in term debt and an "approximate" overdraft of $290,000.

"Addressing Webb's debt level is the principal short-term focus of the directors," the company said. "This will provide Webb's with the ability to allow the significant investments made to date in people, premises and online technology to be fully implemented which we believe will provide new channels to market and potentially new category development.

"It will also clearly enable the business to better deal with the vicissitudes of the economy and the auction room," the company said.

The company has shifted its focus solely to New Zealand, with the exception of its stamp collection business in Australia, and purchased the 51 percent of its major business, Webb's gallery in Auckland, it didn't already own in a bid to return to profitability.

Since taking full control of Webb's, operational results have underperformed forecasts presented during the valuation, and "it is now clear that the purchase price of the 51 percent was too high," the company said in November.

The struggling collectibles and stamp collector sold its Mowbray units having reviewed its operations after widening its first-half loss to $1.99 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from a loss of $700,000 a year earlier, describing it as "the worst six months in the company's history".

Poor trading at its Mowbray Bethunes and Peter Webb Galleries combined with one-off restructuring costs led to a $1.28 million non-cash write-down of goodwill across all its cash generating units.

Mowbray shares were unchanged at a record low of 12 cents and have fallen 54 percent since the start of the year.

(BusinessDesk)