EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRK) (A-Mark), a leading fully integrated precious metals platform, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a 25% ownership interest in a United Kingdom-based company which owns and operates through a wholly owned subsidiary, Atkinsons Bullions & Coins (“Atkinsons”), for cash consideration of $2.75 million. Founded in 1990, Atkinsons is a leading United Kingdom-based online retailer of precious metals, bullion and coins.
Atkinsons reported revenue of over $130 million in calendar 2022. In connection with the agreement, A-Mark and Atkinsons will enter into a three-year supplier agreement which includes a renewal provision. A-Mark will also be granted an option, exercisable no sooner than 24 months after the closing, to purchase an additional 24.5% ownership interest in Atkinsons which, if exercised, would increase A-Mark’s ownership interest to 49.5%.
“The A-Mark team and I are impressed with Atkinsons’ track record within its Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) market,” said A-Mark CEO Greg Roberts. “This transaction represents our first investment outside of North America, and expands our international footprint as we continue to focus on growing our DTC base and geographic reach.”
“We are delighted to welcome the team at A-Mark to the Atkinsons family,” said Paul Atkinson CEO of Atkinsons Bullion & Coins. “From our initial meeting it was obvious we shared the same values for exceeding our clients’ expectations and delivering market-leading products and services at competitive prices. We are confident this partnership will support and enhance our ambitious growth plans. A-Mark's experience will be invaluable to our strategy.”
The proposed transaction is expected to close in March 2023, subject to customary closing conditions.
About A-Mark Precious Metals
Founded in 1965, A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRK) is a leading fully integrated precious metals platform that offers an array of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper bullion, numismatic coins, and related products to wholesale and retail customers via a portfolio of channels. The company conducts its operations through three complementary segments: Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services, Direct-to-Consumer, and Secured Lending. The company’s global customer base spans sovereign and private mints, manufacturers and fabricators, refiners, dealers, financial institutions, industrial users, investors, collectors, and e-commerce and other retail customers.
A-Mark’s Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment distributes and purchases precious metal products from sovereign and private mints. As a U.S. Mint-authorized purchaser of gold, silver, and platinum coins since 1986, A-Mark purchases bullion products directly from the U.S. Mint for sale to customers. A-Mark also has longstanding distributorships with other sovereign mints, including Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Mexico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company sells more than 200 different products to e-commerce retailers, coin and bullion dealers, financial institutions, brokerages, and collectors. In addition, A-Mark sells precious metal products to industrial users, including metal refiners, manufacturers, and electronic fabricators.
Through its A-M Global Logistics subsidiary, A-Mark provides its customers with a range of complementary services, including managed storage options for precious metals as well as receiving, handling, inventorying, processing, packaging, and shipping of precious metals and coins on a secure basis. A-Mark’s mint operations, which are conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary Silver Towne Mint, enable the company to offer customers a wide range of proprietary coin and bar offerings and, during periods of market volatility when the availability of silver bullion from sovereign mints is often product constrained, preferred product access.
A-Mark’s Direct-to-Consumer segment operates as an omni-channel retailer of precious metals, providing access to a multitude of products through its wholly owned subsidiaries, JM Bullion and Goldline. JM Bullion is a leading e-commerce retailer of precious metals and operates six separately branded, company-owned websites targeting specific niches within the precious metals market: JMBullion.com, ProvidentMetals.com, Silver.com, GoldPrice.org, SilverPrice.org and BGASC.com. JMB also owns CyberMetals.com, an online platform where customers can purchase and sell fractional shares of digital gold, silver, platinum and palladium bars in a range of denominations. Goldline markets precious metals directly to the investor community through various channels, including television, radio, and telephonic sales efforts. A-Mark also holds minority ownership interests in three additional direct-to-consumer brands.
The company operates its Secured Lending segment through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Collateral Finance Corporation (CFC) and AM Capital Funding. Founded in 2005, CFC is a California licensed finance lender that originates and acquires loans secured by bullion and numismatic coins. Its customers include coin and precious metal dealers, investors, and collectors. AM Capital Funding was formed in 2018 for the purpose of securitizing eligible secured loans of CFC.
A-Mark is headquartered in El Segundo, CA and has additional offices and facilities in the neighboring Los Angeles area as well as in Dallas, TX, Las Vegas, NV, Winchester, IN, and Vienna, Austria. For more information, visit www.amark.com.
Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that relate to future plans, objectives, expectations, performance, events, and the like are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These include statements regarding expectations regarding future macroeconomic conditions and demand for precious metal products, and the Company’s ability to effectively respond to changing economic conditions. Future events, risks, and uncertainties, individually or in the aggregate, could cause actual results or circumstances to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the following: the failure to execute the Company’s growth strategy, including the inability to identify suitable or available acquisition or investment opportunities; greater than anticipated costs incurred to execute this strategy; changes in the current international political climate, which has favorably contributed to demand and volatility in the precious metals markets; potential adverse effects of the current problems in the national and global supply chains; the failure to satisfy the conditions to the closing of the investment in Atkinsons Bullion & Coins; failure to achieve the anticipated benefits of the investment; increased competition for the Company’s higher margin services, which could depress pricing; the failure of the Company’s business model to respond to changes in the market environment as anticipated; changes in consumer demand and preferences for precious metal products generally; potential negative effects that inflationary pressure may have on our business; the failure of our investee companies to maintain, or address the preferences of, their customer bases; general risks of doing business in the commodity markets; the continued effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the eventual return to normalized business and economic conditions; and the strategic, business, economic, financial, political and governmental risks and other Risk Factors described in in the Company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The words "should," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "foresee," "plan" and similar expressions and variations thereof identify certain of such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they were made. Additionally, any statements related to future improved performance and estimates of revenues and earnings per share are forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
Company Contact:
Steve Reiner, Executive Vice President, Capital Markets & Investor Relations
A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.
1-310-587-1410
sreiner@amark.com
Investor Relations Contacts:
Matt Glover or Jeff Grampp, CFA
Gateway Investor Relations
1-949-574-3860
AMRK@gatewayir.com
Source: A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.
