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Roll on the 17th, breweries will be working overtime.
SP 105+ next week !
Everything looked ok till the US opened. As US tech stocks seem over valued and has to readjust, what are the chances of that capital flowing into the likes of mars, nex etc just as their sectors are going to be substantially opened up? Fingers crossed but makes sense to me
Just read that the High Court have ruled in favour of the govt re the hospitality sector being allowed to re-open indoors earlier than may 17th. It was a long shot but would have been nice if they had won. Only 2 weeks to go.
This share price will go up when the board push them selfs to make this a big company
I visited the Chester, North Wales site today. (St Davies)
The outdoor area was packed. Money rolling in clearly!
There was a queue for tables, pricing very good on drinks, can’t really argue. Value for money with the food vs quality. Meh.
£38 spent on 2 pints of Pepsi Max, 2 x starters, 2 mains and 2 sides. I guess that wasn’t bad however was expensive for what seems like basic cash and carry grub, Wetherspoons standard at best.
The chips looked as if the fat hadn’t been changed for days.
poor quality on the food front. I’ll stick to Harvester.
Staff polite however service extremely slow. Would I return? I’m afraid not. Have I invested in Marstons, Yes. Will I continue to invest at this time? No. I see better value elsewhere on the market such as HMSO, ROLLS, Menzies.
Just sharing my thoughts for tonight, Kinda disappointed.
With it being a bank holiday weekend. An extra few quid coming in for us, which will be helpful.
Just install an ad blocker, that way you don't have to deal with obnoxious ads on every web page. It is a must-have!
@Fairdealer
Thanks for the info mate, but it wouldn't work so well for me. I don't drive.
I can get in and out of Wolverhampton to Stourbridge easy enough (we usually travel on the train) but it would be more cost effective to stay in Stourbridge itself, and eat & drink at The Glassworks (a Marston's pub).
It was good of you to point the place out though.
I did think there was an Inn in Dudley, but there's none listed on their website for there.
Trent,
The Spread Eagle ( Marstons) is at the junction of the A449 and A5. Get off M6 at jnct 13 and down A449. I stay there when in the Wolverhampton area.. Not many miles north of Stourbridge and straight down the 449.
@Barchid.
Yes, I saw an article about that. Scary figures there for them is that.
On the plus side, doubtlessly they (along with us) will hopefully benefit from increased bookings from Staycationers this year so fingers crossed.
We usually stay at a Premier Inn in Stourbridge when we visit our friends in The Midlands as I had thought there were no Marston's Inns in the area, which is a shame, as I don't really like the idea of giving our money to a competitor.
To their credit though, they do sell Hobgoblin Gold on draft.
Is anyone else starting to get mildly irritated by the bombardment of adverts popping up every 5 seconds on this site?
That said though, I have spotted one for Marstons a number of times though.
I know you can put a stop to them by signing up to a subscription service mind, but given my limited funds, I'd rather not commit to that though.
My bowels are well and truly exercised I think, Barchid. I had a home made curry for my tea last night. I did a "Trent 700 special". You can fly planes on it. Perhaps I did put 1 too many Bird Eye chilli in it.
Proper bog roll in the freezer job. Deary me. I'll never learn.
@Fairdealer
Exercise the mind or the bowels ?
Sadly though you are correct, Whitbread looking for further savings of £100mill today too.
Here are some numbers to exercise the mind.
Whitbreads revenue decreased by almost £1.5billion creating a loss of £1billion.. Whitbread made a fund raise last summer amounting to £1billion. The Fund raise is virtually elimated by the loss.
Marston's revenue for yr 20 was £821m of which brewing revenue was £305m. Brewery profit amounted to £17.3m . Consolidated company results amounted to a £22m Loss.
Now Brewery contribution is reduced expect some nasty losses come End of current year.
It is difficult to see debt reduction achieved without some dramatic infusion of funds, either asset sales or possibly a Fund raise.
AIMO
Good morning Longtimeinvestor,
Further to Fairdealer's response, Marstons primary strategic objective is for net debt to be below £1billion by 2024 (refer to last presentation).
If you run the numbers, you'll see it requires a major disposal between now and 2024. Trading profits alone are insufficient.
I'm still positive about Marston's future share price if all social distancing is removed, as planned, by the end of June.
longtime.......the projected sales you quote are massively overstated.
Combined pre-covid beers sales were stated as £800m, (Marstons £389m, Carlsberg UK £414m). It would be amazing if given economies of scale, cost savings are not achieved, indeed having made losses these passed 2 years ( even bigger this current year), Marston's 40% share must produce a good result to offset the ongoing and consequential losses due to Covid. Unless there are further asset disposals these losses will be carried forward for some time. Marstons have limited ability to dispose of some, if any of it's retained estate due to the JV agreement ( required to retain at least 50% of it's Pubs). The hospitality/accomodation sector is enduring some dramatic sales data, Premier Inns have announced this morning a 70+% drop in revenues. These numbers will be reflected across the sector.
Against this background Marstons are left with the one valuable asset it is able to sell. Carlsberg have track-record, just look at the Tetley agreement, which was a 50/50 agreement. Be under No illusion Carlsberg is almost certain to acquire 100% of the combined brewery company within 5 years.
L69
'' I expect to be sold off in the next couple of years.''
I cannot see why the company would need to sell it's stake in the
CARLSBERG MARSTON’S BREWING COMPANY, when the deal only completed about 6 months ago.
This JV will have about £2 Billion in annual sales when things return to normal and offers
cost saving opportunities in the tens of millions of pounds. Good asset to own 40% of.
"wolf from door"
Londoner.agree with your initial synopsis and add RF's expansionist ventures have increased organic debt to levels where maintaining has led to virtual flash sales starting with the sale to Admiral at a huge discount, and latterly the Brewery sale
Some beleive the link with Carlsberg is beneficial. The benefit being short-term in so much as the traunche of funds received was required to keep the Wold from the door. Ultimately as some of us have predicted the 40% of the brewery will go within 5 years. Carlsberg have history, as Tetley's bear testiment.
I am not convinced the foray into Wales is going to provide the riches some expect. Brain's an Old established Brewer and Pub Owner could not make it work.
Regret RF's legacy is presenting his successor with some formidable issues.
Hi Fairdealer,
RF, under his watch, allowed net debt to increase too high which is why they had to sell the brewery business below MV to raise cash. We are now left with an undesirable minority interest which I expect to be sold off in the next couple of years.
Also, highly leverage listed companies trade at a discount compared to their less leveraged peers, which is why the current strategy to focus on debt reduction is the correct one.
However, it's not all doom and gloom, because the sector was rife with takeovers prior to COVID-19 and with fair winds we may go back to some sense of normality relatively soon.
Or maybe I'm too optimistic....
Londoner in your opinion why has Marstons so badly underperformed??
Good evening all,
We must not forget that Marstons has significantly underperformed in the last 5 years and this can be evidenced by the share price.
In the last management presentation, they stated that they would more to the more profitable franchise model, and this could be a consequence of that strategy.
RF has not retired, which suggests, he was pushed, I really don't understand why it took so long.
Marstons need to cut costs and drive margins in order to improve shareholder value.
I work for a PE backed firm and they would not tolerate such underperformence.
Thanks
Daave, further thought/question.
Many publican/Tenants will have purchased a lease and have equity within the Public House. Is here any indication how those Lessee's are to be compensated?