Thursday tips round-up: TSB, Virgin,Marston's

The long list of challenger banks, both those who have recently floated as well as those which are waiting in the wings to do so, enjoy some important advantages over their big four rivals (HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, RBS). Namely, they lack the legacy problems which are dogging their competitors and there is political support for competition in the sector.Alas, banking rewards scale, given the large investments in IT which are necessary and the growing regulatory costs. Lloyds has a cost-to-income ratio of 50% versus approximately 70% for Virgin and TSB. Furthermore, bank customers are sticky. Hence, the question arises of how quickly these new kids on the block can achieve sufficient scale and at what cost to their margins. On the other hand, it remains to be seen how fast misconduct issues and demands for more capital will tail off, the Financial Times points out.Shares of pub-operator Marston's have done little this year even though its re-structuring is approaching its end. The company has been ditching hundreds of drinks-led boozers, focusing instead on those establishments which sell food, its so-called Destination and Premium pubs. To take note of, the company has been building new pubs, rather than competing in auctions for existing stock. That is an important difference. The company can build new freehold sites at a cost of about six times earnings, versus paying an average of approximately 7.5 times earnings at those auctions.This time next year the re-structuring will be complete with half the firm's profits originating at those Destination and Premium pubs. The shares are on about 11 times' this year's earnings but the main support comes from the 5% dividend yield they sport. "Marston's has one of the most attractive estates in the pub sector and will benefit from restructuring while the dividend yield is a plus, so 'hold'," says The Times's Tempus.