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Wealthy Chinese are expanding their investment horizons and looking beyond property and shares to stamps, coins, and rare banknotes, says Olivier Stocker.
And that is why the chairman and chief executive of Spink, one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of collectibles bought a philatelic auction house in Hong Kong named Phila China  about two months ago - a move that Stocker believes can strengthen its business in China. 
'More than half of the buyers [in Hong Kong] are from the mainland, in terms of both transaction values and volumes' Stocker said in Hong Kong. 
'The thing that distinguishes the Chinese collector is that he or she is more aggressive than other buyers. When they want something, they don't mind bidding a bit more to get it and once they have decided to buy something, they usually get it. 
'European buyers are usually more conservative about price.' 
Founded in 1666, London-based Spink now has six offices worldwide, including Singapore, New York, Dallas and, after it acquired Swiss auctioneer Investphila about four months ago, Lugano in Switzerland.
It has held auctions in Hong Kong for about two decades and the number of stamp auctions it organises in the city will be increased from once a year to four times a year. 
These will include one large auction plus three other regular sales to woo more mainland collectors who would travel across the border to bid for items they love, according to Stocker. 
At last year's Spink auction in Hong Kong, HK$80 million worth of stamps, banknotes, bonds and shares were knocked down to enthusiastic collectors.
'It really is a growing business.' 
The popularity of stamp collecting in China has risen in the last few years, said Stocker, a former banker who has worked in Hong Kong, because of a growing passion among Chinese to acquire rare collectibles associated with the history of their homeland.
Anna Lee, who founded Phila China 11 years ago and will now become Spink's vice-chairman in Hong Kong after selling her company, said Chinese buyers spent 10 times more buying stamps in the last five years, partly because of a growing number of speculators.  
Her company had organised more than 40 auctions since 2001 and last year it sold a set of Imperial Chinese stamps issued for use in Taiwan in 1888 for HK$10.12 million, the highest-priced Chinese philatelic item sold at a public auction. 
Lee said the value of some rare China stamps had increased tenfold in ten years because of huge demand, while Stocker said collectibles would increase by 10 per cent in value per annum on average over time. 
Spink also acquired Lee's wine business, Oeno China, which will help expand its business lines, particularly as half of its clients who are fond of collectibles are also wine lovers. The firm's first wine auction will be held in March. 
'We will hold a wine auction in Hong Kong only. I believe it's the best market on the planet,' said Stocker, citing the absence of a wine duty, which has made the city a favourable environment for wine sales. 
Wine was a fast-developing market with strong potential for further growth, he said, and while there may be only a few thousand bottles of some fine wines, there were hundreds of thousands of people who wanted to drink it. 
As the US economy is expected to recover slowly this year, Stocker believes Asia market could overtake the US as the firm's second-largest market, while Europe would still be in the top spot as Spink had been there for a few hundred years. 
Spink plans some 80 auctions around the world this year, up from about 70 last year. 
Stocker forecasts that over 20 per cent of sales, in terms of transaction value, would come from auctions in Hong Kong and Singapore this year.
$3.8m
The highest price, in US dollars, ever paid for a philatelic item,  a pair of 1847 'Post Office' stamps from Mauritius



Spink set to stamp its name on China