Thursday tips round-up: Marston's, Tesco, John Wood Group

Marston´s annual trading update revealed a perceptible difference in performance between its managed and tenanted estates in terms of their like-for-like sales performance. The latter achieved a 2.2 per cent rise, ahead of the tenanted state which saw just a 2.0 per cent increase. It is for this reason that its chief is accelerating the sale, or in fewer cases conversion into managed pubs, of the 380-strong rump tenanted estate, with few expected to be left by 2016. He is also recycling the proceeds by bringing forward the new-build programme. About a third of the new openings will be in the South, where the company is still under-represented. As a strategy, this makes perfect sense, but it does mean some earnings dilution in the short term, as sales are lost from disposals and the new estate takes time to come through. Positively, those disposals are coming through faster than expected and the dividend is expected to remain intact, so the shares will have the support of a yield of approaching 5%. Marston's shares sell on 11 times' this year's earnings.?The strategy is right, but the market may take a while to appreciate this. Hold, says The Times´ Tempus column. Tesco and Wal Mart have just swapped their strategies in emerging markets, with the former opting to create in joint-venture in China while the latter does the opposite in India. The common denominator is that there are huge opportunities in both countries, but they are proving hard to exploit. The difference lies in that while Tesco is searching for a business model that works its US peer is responding to regulatory constraints. Nevertheless, neither operations adds much to either company´s valuations versus domestic their respective domestic peers who are not present in emerging markets. Simply said, the day when these countries make a meaningful contribution is a long way off. Wider distaste for emerging markets is partly to blame. The MSCI emerging markets index has underperformed the S&P 500 over one, three and five years. So bold moves into these markets, however good the prospects, are unlikely to go down well. That leaves the likes of Tesco and Walmart to either get out entirely, and admit they cannot turn the potential of China and India into sustainable profits, or fiddle with the model until they find something that works, the Financial Times' Lex column writes. Two years ago John Wood pulled off a well-timed and well-priced deal to sell its well support division to GE. The future of gas turbines was already under review. There was clearly not such a generous buyer around for gas turbines; instead, the company has opted for a more cumbersome joint venture with a similar business within Siemens of Germany. Wood retains management of and a majority stake in the joint venture. Its gas turbines side traditionally has done better in such alliances with producers such as Rolls-Royce, and these are not included in the deal. Now the company has decided that it will not carry out such large, fixed-price contracts in future, which are often a hostage to fortune. If another joint venture with Pratt & Whitney, of the United States, is included in the Siemens deal, Wood gets $70m in cash for its interest. The shares, up 4p at 766p, have underperformed since August, when they were approaching £9. They sell on 12 times' earnings, which does not look overly expensive, Tempus says.Please note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only as not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.AB