Collectibles: Even Better Than Art Following Noble Investments’ Inclusion into Skate’s Art Stock Index, Three Art Industry Stocks Now Represent Collectibles Category

September 20, 2011

Following the overhaul of Skate’s Art Stock Index (SASI) conducted on September 1, 2011 and announced the day before (click here for story) the index now has three companies representing the collectibles category. Collectors Universe and Noble Investments operate predominantly in the numismatics sector, and Stanley Gibbons primarily covers stamps. Following all three companies’ recent six months financial reporting (Collectors Universe reported annual results as its fiscal year ends on June 30), we provide a comparative analysis that shows each company with an enviable business model that generates a strong cash flow despite continued global economic turbulence.

To read the full article with data, click here.

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Understanding Abbey House: Specialty Retail Play Focused on Rapidly Growing Class of Eastern European High Net Worth Consumers

August 30, 2011

On May 5, 2011, Skate’s added a relatively new firm–Poland’s Abbey House (established in 2010)–to Skate’s Art Stock Index. On August 16, 2011, Abbey published its six months financial results, the first public financial disclosure since it listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange earlier this year. We have studied Abbey House and researched its business model, and in this issue of Skate’s Market Notes we discuss our findings.

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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Artprice’s Share Re-pricing: Bubble or a Strong Investment Case in the Making?

August 24, 2011

For years at Skate’s we have been consistently suspicious of Artprice, the French art market data provider and classified listing service for galleries (click here for Skate’s coverage of Artprice). This summer, however, quite a few of our readers have contacted us to ask that we reconsider our views, citing spectacular share price performance and volumes dynamics at Artprice. They did have strong arguments to disagree with our skeptical view of Artprice, whose stock saw a massive upward re-pricing in early April from USD 11.70 on April 6 to USD 40.90 on April 13 (converted to USD from EUR, which is Artprice’s base trading currency). It has remained at these new levels since then following yet another jump in late May, with no correlation whatsoever with either the market’s overall performance measured by the S&P 500 or with the industry as measured by Skate’s Art Stock Index benchmark.

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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artnet: Back to Red, Auction Volume Flat against Sotheby’s 27% Same Period Growth, Price Database Profitability Down by 40%

August 15, 2011

artnet has reported its six months’ financial results, and, unlike the Sotheby’s numbers that we commented on last week (see Sotheby’s report), its performance is disappointing. Revenue fell to the sum reported in the same period of last year, the firm returned to a net loss and its bet to grow on the back of its online auction offering is not (yet) working.

For more than three years, artnet has consistently said that while it faces declines in gallery membership and information sales, the firm’s growth should come from the online auction business unit that it launched a few years ago. Unfortunately for artnet, the timing for the online auction launch largely coincided with the global economic meltdown of 2008, and the company’s management asked for the benefit of the doubt on the question of whether its online art trading would prosper once economic recovery resumed.

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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Sotheby’s Six Month Report: Strong Results Lead to Astonishing Cash Numbers with Private Sales Becoming the Fastest Growing Line of Business; Dutch Exit and China Acquisition; Strong Buy Rating from Skate’s

August 10, 2011

Since last year, Skate’s has argued that it would make considerable sense for Christie’s to go public in 2011 given the generous valuation multiples in the art industry. The momentum, at least for this year, has been lost for Christie’s, as recent global stock market turbulence coupled with a stream of IPO cancellations have made it clear that investors’ appetite for new deals has fallen significantly. Francois Pinault was apparently unable to jump on the IPO bandwagon last year given the previously planned departure of Edward Dolman, the CEO of Christie’s for over 10 years who announced his move to the Qatar Over the past several weeks, a rollercoaster ride on global equity markets has taken investors’ attention away from news on individual companies and resulted in a massive sell-off of shares across the board. Although the impact of S&P’s U.S. debt downgrade and continued European debt troubles have yet to be fully digested by the market, now is a good time to revisit the fundamentals and take a closer look at the financial results of the major companies that make up Skate’s Art Stocks Index.

In this issue of Skate’s Market Notes, we will profile Sotheby’s, which published its second quarter and first half results on August 3 (the full report can be found at Skate’s Art Stocks & Funds section at www.skatepress.com).

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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New Star in the Global Art Industry Rises from the East (Expect IPO in 2012) or How the Chinese People Liberation Army Built the World’s Third Largest Auction House in Just 6 Years

July 26, 2011

Since last year, Skate’s has argued that it would make considerable sense for Christie’s to go public in 2011 given the generous valuation multiples in the art industry. The momentum, at least for this year, has been lost for Christie’s, as recent global stock market turbulence coupled with a stream of IPO cancellations have made it clear that investors’ appetite for new deals has fallen significantly. Francois Pinault was apparently unable to jump on the IPO bandwagon last year given the previously planned departure of Edward Dolman, the CEO of Christie’s for over 10 years who announced his move to the Qatar Museums Authority earlier this summer. Christie’s is now unlikely to entertain any plans for an IPO in the immediate future as it digests the leadership change. The only art industry firm that benefited from the great window of opportunity was Poland’s Abbey House, which successfully listed in Warsaw in May, as well as Switzerland’s MCH Group, which completed a new issue this summer.

There is an interesting new story to tell, however, as Skate’s has learned that the next art industry IPO will take place in China and will be made by Poly International Auction. Should the IPO take place as we expect, it would create the world’s second largest publicly traded art industry company after Sotheby’s.

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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Lucian Freud—Previously the World’s Third Most Valuable Living Artist—Passed Away on July 20. Freud Now Ranks #30 in the Pantheon of World’s Most Valuable Artists

July 25, 2011

Three of the World’s Ten Most Valuable Living Artists are Now Chinese

Scarcely two weeks after the death of Cy Twombly, another living artist—Lucian Freud—has passed away. Both artists saw an extraordinarily successful final auction season that relentlessly pushed their names up the value chain of the global art market’s premium segment. At the time of Twombly’s death, he was the world’s 6th most valuable living artist. Lucian Freud, who was 88 when he passed away, was the 3rdmost valuable living artist . Freud now ranks as the 30th most valuable artist based on nominal auction prices.

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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Cy Twombly, the World’s 6th Most Valuable Living Artist, Passed Away Yesterday, July 5, 2011 in Rome, Italy

July 6, 2011

Cy Twombly, the world’s 6th most valuable living artist and 49th most valuable artist overall, has passed away yesterday at the age of 83, some 56 days after seeing an all-time record for his art set at Christie’s New York auction in May of this year.

With 28 artworks listed in Skate’s Top 5000 , Twombly has seen over US $200 million being paid for his art at auctions during his lifetime (his more valuable artworks eligible for Skate’s Top 5000 alone being worth $136 million at the day of Twombly’s death).

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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Monthly Art Investment Ideas from Skate’s Art Market Research: July 2011

July 3, 2011

Welcome to the July issue of Skate’s Art Investment Review. As always, our coverage is focused on the universe of 665 global artists whose artworks are represented in Skate’s Top 5000 database, which is comprised of the world’s most valuable art according to auction prices. To learn more about Skate’s Top 5000 and the artworks and artists represented, please visit www.skatepress.com.

In this issue:

  • Skate’s Rating News in June, including Repeat Sales, Chinese Sales and Russian Sales
  • Old Masters, Overview of the Market
  • Top 3 Art Investment Ideas for July 2011
  • Skate’s Art Stocks Index

To download the full issue, please click here.

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Mallett Finally Falls Prey as Swedish Activist Investor Buys Up 23%, Stock Remains in Play

June 22, 2011

Skate’s has long expected that Mallett, a London-based antiques dealer and a constituent of Skate’s Art Stock Index, would either go private or be purchased by a third party. 2010 marked the third consecutive year of losses for Mallett (losses of GBP 1.27 million on revenue of GBP 13.26 million in 2010), and the firm’s market capitalization of slightly less than GBP 10 million pounds ($16 million) makes it the smallest among the 12 stocks included in Skate’s Art Stock Index. With its strong name, flagship London location and status as one of only a dozen publically traded art industry companies in the world, Mallett has been inviting an ownership change without a means to fight it. Mallett has no cash; in fact, its balance sheet shows a negative number for cash and its cash equivalent line suggests that the firm is in net debt on a cash basis!

A change in ownership finally seems to be taking place now. Based on a recent London Stock Exchange filing, 23% of the company is now owned by a new investor—Sweden’s Peter Gyllenhammar, an individual who purchased this block of shares through two companies in which he has 100% ownership, Bronsstädet AB and Union Discount Company of London plc.

Mr. Gyllenhammar, 54, has long been an activist investor who specializes on small cap companies listed in London. Already under his belt are board level fights at Leeds Group plc, Jarvis Porter plc and Renew Holding plc, to name a few. He had apparently been buying Mallett, a fairly illiquid stock, throughout the entire first half of the year and owned 20.7% of shares as of the AGM record date (April 13). He was presumably the buyer behind all or most of the stock trades since the AGM (Mr. Gyllenhammar owns 3,083,500 shares as of the date of the last regulatory filing).

To read the full article with data, please click here.

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