Marston's Share Discussion Threads

[janekane] 21/11/2018 13:29

Good opurtunity to top up

[chinese investor] 21/11/2018 12:54

Recommendation ?

[cc2014] 21/11/2018 12:50

Now it looks different at 105 and up 6.6%

[big yankee dealer] 21/11/2018 12:00

• Marston’s has reported profits in line with expectations and EPS, on a lower tax charge, slightly ahead.

• The group has held its dividend, the shares yield 7.6%, and has given a signal that it will focus on debt reduction in the near term.

• Trading is positive in the first weeks of the new financial year and, as the group aims to mitigate most of its cost increases in 2018/19, the group should only need 1% to 2% LfL sales increases in order to hold profits steadyagainst what is a tough trading backdrop.

• The World Cup and the warm weather have been, overall, helpful. But margins have fallen a shade and interest costs have risen. Drink has performed well but food sales were impacted earlier in the year by hot weather and by the World Cup (and earlier still by the Beast from the East).

• As has been noted for some time, what remains clear is clear that the balanced model has smoothed trading for Marston’s given the swing in trading performance (food has been tough and wet sales have been strong.)

• Marston’s shares trade on a PER of around 7x with a yield of 7.6%. Debt should begin to fall at a faster rate and the dividend is secure.

• The shares appear cheap. Trading is not easy but Marston’s has a estate of well-managed and well-maintained, largely freehold properties. It is selling product that the consumer would like to buy at a price they are prepared to pay.

• Lodges, craft brewing and food (in the longer term) remain growth areas. Marston’s is a major brewer and has a large wet-led element to its estate and is well-placed to grow and to create further value for its shareholders.

[skinny] 21/11/2018 11:57

FWIW :-

Peel Hunt Buy 99.15 125.00 Reiterates

Liberum Capital Buy 99.15 130.00 Reiterates

Shore Capital Buy 99.15 Reiterates

[handicap] 21/11/2018 11:56

Indeed, Jeffian, and unless the new Chairman rolls up his sleeves and breaks into a sweat, the shares may continue to stumble haltingly onwards.

[jeffian] 21/11/2018 09:01

Pedestrian.

[exel] 21/11/2018 08:31

In line results delivered into an out of line market. Useful pointers re uplifted current year capital disposals, trimmed new capex, slowly reducing leverage (v ebitda), further CW cost synergies still to come, held div (on reasonable albeit not immaculate cover) and banking facilities renewed.

[the deacon] 21/11/2018 08:14

Langton Comment:• Marston's has reported profits in line with expectations and EPS, on a lower tax charge, slightly ahead.• The group has held its dividend, the shares yield 7.6%, and has given a signal that it will focus on debt reduction in the near term.• Trading is positive in the first weeks of the new financial year and, as the group aims to mitigate most of its cost increases in 2018/19, the group should only need 1% to 2% LfL sales increases in order to hold profits steadyagainst what is a tough trading backdrop.• The World Cup and the warm weather have been, overall, helpful. But margins have fallen a shade and interest costs have risen. Drink has performed well but food sales were impacted earlier in the year by hot weather and by the World Cup (and earlier still by the Beast from the East).• As has been noted for some time, what remains clear is clear that the balanced model has smoothed trading for Marston's given the swing in trading performance (food has been tough and wet sales have been strong.)• Marston's shares trade on a PER of around 7x with a yield of 7.6%. Debt should begin to fall at a faster rate and the dividend is secure.• The shares appear cheap. Trading is not easy but Marston's has a estate of well-managed and well-maintained, largely freehold properties. It is selling product that the consumer would like to buy at a price they are prepared topay.• Lodges, craft brewing and food (in the longer term) remain growth areas. Marston's is a major brewer and has a large wet-led element to its estate and is well-placed to grow and to create further value for its shareholders.

[quepassa] 21/11/2018 08:09

Statutory PBT almost £50million LOWER than last year. That's NOT GOOD.


Lots of talk about the capital structure/debt structure of Marston's going forward.......


Sit up and pay attention.



ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

[baticle] 21/11/2018 08:03

Skimmed through the figures, all looks OK and with the new Chairman onboard we'll
see more focus and direction, can only be a good thing !

[chinese investor] 21/11/2018 08:02

Good Start !

[nigelmoat] 21/11/2018 07:44

PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE 52 WEEKSED 29 SEPTEMBER 2018Record revenue and underlying PBT, dividend maintained

[tim 3] 21/11/2018 01:06

Septimus Quaid

Have also thought this for ages.

Particularly in busy City centre bars why not just have loads of pumps where customers serve themselves after paying contactless.

Age could easily be checked on the door.

You would probably need only one or two members of staff behind the bar to check for issues.

[quepassa] 16/11/2018 14:31

They have already.

They are called supermarket shelves.



That's why pubs are in a commercial death spiral

[septimus quaid] 16/11/2018 14:24

I sometimes wonder, on the basis that many bar staff seem to be unsuited personality vacuums, why pubcos haven’t explored the possibility of installing beer dispensing machines?

[illiswilgig] 16/11/2018 13:22

Ah I did wonder. Thank you for that.

It's the same with Youngs and I suppose to an extent 'Spoons who seem to be ruthless in ditching sites that don't make the grade and buying better sites.

I think Marston's are also trying to move their pubs upwards in quality - but it takes a lot longer with a much bigger estate and less cash (relatively) to invest.

cheer

[septimus quaid] 16/11/2018 10:34

Yes, I think the other strategy for Thwaites is the move to higher quality venues, many (if not approaching 100%) of their old backstreet boozer type establishments have now gone.

[illiswilgig] 16/11/2018 08:15

Only slightly odd as you say. Charles Wells appear to have made the same decision more recently having in turn taken on brewing for Youngs.

In my view it's because Thwaites, Charles Wells and Youngs before them took the decision that their brewing operations were too small to prosper in the mainstream. ie too big for a microbrewery and too small to benefit from scale.

By selling their breweries they could invest in their pubs, return capital to investors or a mixture of both.

Marston's and Greene King have much larger brewing operations, though until the Charles Wells acquisition Marston's was much smaller than Greene King. The relative size and range of brands should give them the scale to prosper - but of course nobody knows the future. Marstons now have similar size of brewing capacity to Greene King though it's based upon a regional network of traditional breweries and a much wider range of brands than Greene King. It will be very interesting to see how well this works for them.

Pub results for Thwaites and Youngs do seem to be excellent. They are much smaller pub estates than Marstons and Greene King and perhaps this vindicates their decisions to sell the brewing and focus on their pubs?

[septimus quaid] 15/11/2018 19:25

Slightly odd situation, as well as MARS being a pub competitor to Thwaites, they also brew their product (e.g. Wainwright):

Once again our average earnings per pub has risen, by 14%, with like for like turnover up by 5% and operating profit up by 7%

[quepassa] 12/11/2018 12:27

i know.

RIGHTS ISSUEs have all sorts of applications.

it is interesting that the managers of the RG rights issue are confident to underwrite and distribute new equity in this difficult and nervous market.

[stevefoster] 12/11/2018 12:00

QP,

RG are using it to buy Wagamama, which appears to be performing better than RG's own brands.

[quepassa] 12/11/2018 07:51

Restaurant Group £315million RIGHTS ISSUE.

always interesting to see what is going on in the sector

[spacecake] 09/11/2018 18:58

Since Aug 2017 until now and still hanging around at £1 a share.