Stamp Auction House Escala Shares Drop after Spanish Police Raids
Published May 10th, 2006
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.
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.
