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FD

You beat me to it !

I note that they are sticking to their trading guidance so now let us see if the new suit can come up with a plan for the debt mountain, and an update on their unwanted premises would also be helpful.

Well this rise has happened very quickly, it certainly seems to have some keen followers at long last after its time in the wilderness.

Their website is still saying that the "latest announcement date" for Q4 numbers is 9 November but no RNS yet today.

Ryno

Much appreciated, yes a few more like that and punters might wake up as to the potential in this company.

Ryno

I can not see it with this link, who gave Made the contract ?

RNS announcig the FD has resigned with immediate effect and they already have a replacement.

Never a good sign, especially with the enquiry still ongoing but perhaps that was the reason for the weak share price ?

I always felt this could be a takeover target, perhaps that day will come ?

Monty

Interesting but complicated by the fact that on presenting the HY numbers in September the CEO did emphasise that the 2nd half would produce a loss due to hedging.

Well this has been a glum 2 months in JIM !

I just stumbled, in youtube, upon a 1 month old "five minute pitch tv" good energy group investors update which is very interesting.

Half way through it zap map is mentioned as something they have high hopes for profit wise and which they have plans to go international with.

A very good 5 minutes for any interested investor, imho.

Andle/Oldboy

Thanks for your thoughts, to me the persistency of the purchases does seem to hint at a potential bit of M&A but the company is poorly covered, if cover is really an appropriate word, by the market players. I guess we just need to stay patient but the interesting part of them, imho, is their depth in the ev charging market.

If anything is likely to tempt a buyer, that is surely the part that would.

As a recent buyer I am a happy holder, but does anyone know what is causing this upsurge in the price, please, other than more buyers than sellers ?

Henners

Agreed but certainly seems to have underperformed Merchants over any reasonable timescale, which is witnesssed by MRCH still able to issue new shares most days on a 1% premium.

TBH I own both but MUT in a smaller size, I bought MUT because it has a lower yield and thus a rather different portfolio to MRCH but I admit to not being over the moon with it these past few years whilst even this week I have added to my MRCH holding.

Am I missing something in MUT ?

A very pleasing trading update today.

Ryno

I fear it is a Diana Ross "I'm still waiting"....

FD

Indeed you are 100% correct, if debt was inflation adjusted the UK national debt would be rather insignificant.

But we all know it is not. Debt is debt & we are aware MARS has too much, hence its shares trade like option money at present.

As for longtime taking 6 posts between 20.17 & 21.04 on Thursday to argue about MARS debt & Findlays crassness in locking shareholders in to some debt on high interest suggested to me that perhaps he could have been enjoying some of Marstons finest, not that I would blame him for that as I am most partial to their beers myself, but posting whilst "having fun" is less than ideal.

On a more serious note what was your take on the trading update, my first read was that it was relatively encouraging but the fact that they have not indicated where the property sales were compared to the book value leaves me fearing we have taken losses, indeed there are so many ex pubs for sale in my area of London that they appear to be "offered and not bid", some have been empty for over a year now. Not Marstons area, I know, but not a good read on the market in general, for sure.

Wild

Agreed, this does seem to be in the dog house for no real reason, a great business in a growth area and like so many aim shares has become a victim of "more sellers than buyers" syndrome.

I added again today as a long term tuckaway

Longtime

"interest rate on debt at start of 2009 was 6.3%"

BofE base rate was 0.5% in March 2009 with a further fall to 0.25% in August 2016, (having falllen from 5.75% which they were in July 2007).

They moved up again to 0.75%.

Then with covid in 2020 even more QE occurred so yes as I said "interest rates were an awful lot lower than they are now", MARS problem was they locked in some debt at high levels, with hindsight beimg 20/20 at precisely the wrong time, & to compound that error failed to pay down other, floating, debt before covid when business was good & rates were low due to QE.

Thus MARS is now saddled with huge debt in a business sector which has proved less than stellar.

Longtime

Debt was higher pre pandemic & interest rates were an awful lot lower then than they are now, thus encouraging growth.

Pre pandemic pubs were open as usual, during & post pandemic they were closed/open in restricted hours.

Businesses were growing pre pandemic, now they are trying to grow back to what they were,

I can list a few other points but I hardly feel it is necessary...

Carpe

Thanks for that, but as you allude to, a less than ideal date selection...

Thx, where did you see that ?