FD
I, and I am sure that many others on this board are grateful for your sober analysis, especially the assets against debt comparisons.
As a matter of fact I had lunch today in what was a very popular pub pre covid, just 3 minutes walk from the Kings Road, Chelsea.
Today out of about 24 tables only 3 were being used, menu prices are sharply up, enough to even put off the well heeled ex Sloan Rangers that normally inhabit the premises.
I realise Marstons are mainly in areas unlike what I described but on a day where it was 28C in London rationally you would think many more punters would be in a cool, air con bar.
saxman
The Sun is hardly the FT, that's for sure, but an article in todays currant bun about cost of beer in pubs is hardly likely to help sentiment.
In London they say/predict another 6% rise in a pint to as much as £8.48 by next Spring.
Sure that must be in a posh pub but even in the average boozer in London you can struggle to find a pint under £5.
These increases might be OK for brewers but no good for a chain of pubs & we now only have 40% of the brewery business and are heavily weighted towards the pub portfolio.
As ever dyor
Archy
It is also difficult to see how BP lost so much in the US after the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, it wasn't their rig & they weren't the actual operators of the rig but they "British Petroleum" as Obama called them picked up the financial can and the US operators got off almost scott free, that is how the US litagation/justice process seems to work.
GSK is British, seen over there as an easy touch.
Problem is this can go on and on and as soon as they lose one case other facors can come into play.
fatprofits
You make a very fair point.
Another thing that bothers me is the fact that when something untoward turns up like this that it is often the start of bad news and not the end of it, remember Tesco false accounting, for instance ?
The fact that Walmesley sold (RNS 29 July) 148,525 shares at £17.6341 to raise over £2.6million is not a good look to me, what might yet come out of the woodwork ?
Could/should the risks factor in the prospectus been more severe re Zantac?
Every ambulance chaser lawyer will be reading through that more than once to see what case they can make, and so the bad news could keep coming.
fatprofits
Thanks for this, I also missed it but your posts on here have been most useful & accurate, imho.
A true case of "caveat emptor" if ever there was one, I can not recall seeing this in any of the many press write ups on HLN, I wish I had done though !
Trek
I dipped in again yesterday at 155, I am also hoping that the divi stays at 3p but if it went down to 2.5 a quarter the yield is still good and covered.
Agree with your summation of the company and in 6 months time we will start to see the effect of rising interest rates on their cash balances, which could be significant.
FD
Thanks for that, it is odd that the Brains pubs are not highlighted in their accounts as it does make analysis against 2019 before they were taken on very difficult.
Without being overly cynical I have to think that they are not highlighted for a reason, but of course that is only my guess.
A rather bullish & comprehensive research piece on MERC today by Edison.
Very well worth a read (if you can find somewhere shady to do so today), seems like they could be on the M&A trail according to the author of the report, but I fancy they must make a very tempting target themselves on the quoted ratios.
rxdav
You are spot on re Porsche, he repeats his drivel almost daily and infests so many boards, brexit brexit brexit, US tech US tech US tech etc etc.
Must be a real bundle of fun down his local boozer on a Friday night, can you imagine it ?!
Despite his hatred of £ sterling & his love of EU he conveniently forgets to mention that the euro traded at parity with the US$ this week.
A bitter poster if ever I've seen one
Not terribly inspiring, revenue down 22.9% & profits down 32.5% against comparable period last year.
Nothing that I could see about dividend strategy but I just read it swiftly, will go through in more detail later
andsoforth
Personal experience of service/pricing etc is usually much more telling than reading what the city scribblers write, most of which are seriously inexperienced these days.
My own experience with direct line mirrors yours, though mine was up rather less than your 22% but every tale paints a picture !
FD
Succinctly put.
Essentially Sam should p@ss ot get off the pot.
I am still hoping to hear from Tesla man as he always has the reverse Midas touch on this stock, but he is probably still puffing nitwits into Southrnd Airport, which was always one of his favourites !
Jon
I am confused, yesterday you were a "strong buy", today you are a "strong sell", yesterday Mars were going to benefit from staycations & today, with the market up 2% you are now predicting a 15% fall, or "nose dive".
Or am I missing something ?
Scharnhorst
Classic timing of yours to give us the Das Boot clip, must resemble the cabinet room at number 10 tonight eh ?
I agree with you re the numbers, most encouraging, as for you being in for a significant capital gain I wish I was, I must have bought too many in the low 30's as I'm still under water & needing the snorkel tube at present.
Still, onwards & upwards...