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Ahead of the reports on Wednesday 18th May
Peel Hunt reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 120 ($1.53) price objective on shares of Marston’s in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. Berenberg Bank reiterated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 120 ($1.53) price target on shares of Marston’s in a research report on Monday, January 17th. Finally, Shore Capital restated a “buy” rating on shares of Marston’s in a research report on Tuesday, January 25th.
macq the BO may give hospitality businesses a respite , M&B are not so confident. Maybe because there are so many functions happening and with household budgets being under significant pressure, it is difficult to see consumers going mad. But who knows. it might happen.
Inso far as Platinium, they were shunned 3 times, the last being when an offer of 107p was on the table. I think had RF not been so in bed with Brains at the time, an improved offer could have been achieved. The Brains Deal was being conducted with such haste it left a nasty smell especially when not many months after management deal was completed, Brains placed their Freehold estate on the market. Marstons only had a Leasing agreement, repairing at that. What a crazy deal!
A suitor would be welcome IMO, but very unlikely to come anywhere near the previous offer. The sector is not in a good place especially a company heavily indebted.
Fairdealer,most of the hospitality trade is geared up and some relying for a sell out bank holiday weekend added to the queens platinum jubilee,perhaps Platinum Equity Advisors will jump on board with another offer,
He (RF) has left a lot of problems. The Platinium approach was kept under wraps until the 3rd Offer, which the Board rejected without any consultation with ordinary Shareholders. It may be conjecture, but I am confident the Brain's deal was taking centre stage at the time, between a couple of mates, who immediately the deal was completed, one (Brain's Chairman) resigned followed quite swiftly by RF.. It was clear the Brain's estate had not been fully surveyed when the deal was struck. The eventual completion delated 40 pubs which were considered sub-standard ( of poor structural condition). It has never been made clear if there was a revision of the consideration from the initial agreement. It will be interesting to see how the Brain's estate has performed when accounts are released shortly.
Also of interest RF is to become Chair of C&C in July. Well I guess he has claims to knowing the Beverage Industry!!!
Mac
Yes, I & I'm sure many others, are very cogniscant of Findlay not even giving the appearance of exercising the due diligence which he was well paid to do, but just kicked it straight into touch.
He was also largely responsible for the debt mountain we now have.
Anyone remember ralph f stating we were worth more than the £1 a share bid from the americans,as cher said "if only we could turn back time,
I can see this bouncing around the 60's until the global markets stabilise and inflation levels out, it will be interesting to see the supermarket beer sales in the interim results in a couple of weeks.
I sold out of Marstons in Feb this year. My original prompt for buying was a Tempus article in the Times on 06/12/17. The attraction of the company being their high yield. Downside was their worryingly high levels of debt, which exercised the minds of many on this BB.
Once Covid came along, the dividend was cancelled. This was the correct decision from a company point of view but useless for anyone relying of dividend income. After much hand-wringing, I took a loss on Mars in Feb (offset a little by the previously good dividends) as I could see no prospect of a return to dividend payments or at least anywhere near their historically high levels. Not relevant to Mars but I reinvested my money in MNG which, like many financial sector companies, offer a very attractive yield.
The above aside, I just cannot see Mars recovering at all, I am a fairly big frequenter of pubs and they are still relatively dead compared to pre-Covid levels (even at the weekends). As far as I am aware, Mars still have their cripplingly high debts to contend along with the prospect of even higher interest rates.
Worst case, I can see them: 1) going bust, 2) being taken over for a pittance, 3) just staggering on until the usual stock-market shenanigans whereby existing shareholders are diluted into oblivion because of some emergency fund raising exercise at a knock-down share price.
Trent
Correct, we love the Cape and came back last week from a lovely trip down there, a great way to miss winter in UK !
@ Fairdealer. Yes, there's that mate. We all have the things & places we're drawn to, don't we. How's things mate?
@Barchid, you've been to SA recently then, have you? I seem to remember you saying a while ago you visit the place from time to time.
Broker recommendation, if you believe them, not looking good.
Trent maybe you are mesmerized by the place, as some of us have been here??
Cheers Barchid. We always do.
You're right about the box tickers. They're a pain in the @rse to say the least, aren't they.
I used to have a bit of a rule as not to go to the same place more than a couple of times, as I wanted to see as much of the World as I could, but there's something about Kalamaki that keeps me wanting to go there. Who can explain it.
Kind regards.
Trent
Have a great time in Greece, happily when my kids were at school the out of school holiday breaks were normally done on a nod & a wink, these days of box tickers things like that are ancient history.
A shame...
Keepwell
Rgds
All good here Barchid. Glad you are ok.
It has been very quiet on this board of late. I was beginning to think people had sold up and moved on to be fair. This has crossed my mind a few times if I'm being honest. Only my own Pig headed stubbornness seems to be stopping me TBF.
That said, we're off to Zakynthos soon, a lot earlier than when we normally go (Sept, Oct)
Due to our youngest lad's school not letting him have the time off during term time as they used to do. Still. We've got away with that for a number of years already, so we've had a good run of it so mustn't grumble.
Barchid, yep all good now NZ borders are open, hope to get there later in the year.
YoYoMa and I are doing very well elsewhere and would you believe the company is paying dividends, every month. Cannot knock it. Not sure if and when MARS will resume!!!
FD
I agree re vistry, and wrt SA, we returned 6 days ago, fully "Castle'd up" am pleased to report...
Trust all good your end ?
Barchid, thought you may have been in SA?
I have been relatively absent on this board. There has'nt been any real activity. It is very disappointing that we have not seen any results from CMBC, I guess being a Private company the only condensed accounts will at some point be available on Company House portal.
Your experience with Pitcher and Piano is appaling and if replicated throughout the group it rather kicks into touch RF notion of creating a Business of Operational Excellence, following the sale of our Crown Jewels! Maybe he took the buzz phrase to Vistry??
Ladies & Gents
I trust you are all keeping well ?
I've not had anything to say here for a while hence my radio silence but I am in the process of organising a post covid p*ss up with some old mates and thought of having our first livener in Pitcher & Piano, Cornhill branch, website says opens at 10.00 on weekdays, never been my favourite watering hole but the timing was perfect, so on a belt & braces approach I called them to make sure that they were not just serving morning coffees then but was told they do not open until noon. "But your website says 10.00" I said.
Yes, it's wrong, needs updating, was the nub of their response.
Now this might strike some people as trivial but it does show sloppiness in management if they cannot even put the correct opening hours on their website.
This is a chain of wine bars which pre covid etc they could not sell even at a substantial discount to book value, investors might recall. So now having got their valuation too optimistic they do the same with their opening hours, a bit shambolic ?
It's not surprising this has dropped back down to the mid-60's with everything going on in the world right now. On the positive side the weather is improving which means lots of beer gardens and supermarket sales for BBQs and Football.
Yep, the mill-stone around Marston's neck is Debt, add the decline in service/hospitality sales as emphasised by M&B, short term prospect are not looking good.
We are at key support levels now. If they break, the abyss beckons!
Sales of fags and booze is booming. Rising inflation does nothing to curb the buying habits of smokers and drinkers. Plus there's a world cup this year which will see sales of booze rocket.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/12354033/world-cup-2022-dates-draw-schedule-kick-off-times-final-for-qatar-tournament
Agreed. Will probably come with rather negative guidance about the future in both terms of demand and rises in costs. Not a year for consumer discretionary stocks! 63p needs to hold on this one.....
Haven't held these for a while but I see that the above has in the space of a month gone from zero to 6.025%. Pretty strong confidence it would seem.
Will probably buy in again
ATB
T
Looking at this sp performance, doubt there will be much to cheer about. Awful.