Member Info for barchid

Or going back to "Barbarians at the Gate" & Mike Milkens "Predators Ball" each year in Vegas, now that was a hot ticket !
Pump & Dump took on a new aspect there.....

Dave
Thanks, I never thought anyone would ever use bog rolls as an example of buying power, even on this board, first time I read it I thought it was a joke, but sadly the joke was in her reply !

eccles
Off the top of my head I would think you about right , 4 years ago they were +/- 340p or 85p in the current form, good dividends throughout, depending how you calculate the discounted cas flow it could even be higher !
Compared to AJ Bell, which is a pretty fair comparison (better than with HL) we see Bell on over 50pe & yielding 1.3% whilst JIM is on a pe of 18 & a yield of 5 4%, (figures from FT).
Bell appears too dear (directors selling this week), after their results a month ago, but if JIM come out with good numbers in early March their pe could be quite a lot lower than currently showing, all with only 45 staff.
You are talking me into adding now I repeat these numbers !

Euclid
Just to clarify, Amati are not in the top 10 largest managers nor funds, but they were the winners of the 2020 AIC investment company of the year awards last month for their vct, and on May 29 there is a rns in the FT saying that on May 28 they sold their entire i-nexus holding which was 10.7%, in other words only Herald owned more. So one does not have to be the largest fund to have a double figure % stake.
Additionally they must have had a good reason to cut & run at that time is the point I was making. They are not stupid having way more winners than losers & are one of the highest performers in vct/aim shares & often invest before companies list on aim so early stage has never been an issue.
I have been (happily) invested with them for a good few years & increase my holdings regularly.

Clairesmith
Wow, I never would have thought of that.....

Sardine run, as in S Africa ?

Fairdealer
Agreed. I thought (& hoped) that RF was going to concentrate on upscaling his own premises now he is no longer in charge of a brewery.
Sadly not to be, apparently he prefers to take on a Welsh challenge rather than just getting on with his day job.

YoYoMa
Looks like another chicken pellets day to me, the ultimate HNY for us all could be to have Tesla man turn up with his words of non wisdom ?

Clairesmith
Most impressed to read that Mars will now be able to buy their toilet roll cheaper, they could save so much on that we could see the dividend restored in 2021 (not).

Euclid
This may sound like an "I told you so" but honestly it is not meant in that way ; back in July I posted here that if such seasoned microcap investors as Amati Global sold their stake in their VCT which they had bought on the placing at 79p for 5p it was a good warning of what could be coming. They talk to their companies on a weekly basis so they monitor holdings very carefully. From memory their holding was a bit less than Heralds & reason I showed interest in this was that at their vct a few years ago there was a presentation on this stock.
I was no wiser after this talk than I was before it as to what this company actually offered as their edge, over coffee later I discovered that I was far from alone in this lack of understanding. Given this was a vct agm, most people there were quite clued up on early stage businesses so not a great sign.
The other sign was that straight after that sale this started to attract the "Twitterati", which imo is usually a red light.
But, as always DYOR

A satisfying move in price and number of trades today....

Panderman
I am also bemused as to the lack of follow through today.
It could be net funds avoiding the large divi but I don't really think that is too likely as they have had months to get ready for this special dividend moment, nonetheless I intend adding again today.

Trent
WRT staycations and people filling up pubs, there is some merit in that but what bothers me is that the times I've stayed at a Marstons hotel/motel, there always seemed to be quite a high % of europeans, apparently wanting the pub experience, mainly from Germany, Holland & the Scandi's, so with covid we can comfortably wave bye bye to that trade. Thus we will need Brits paying for rooms to make that up, I guess, so it is possibly a bit more complicated than on first glance ?

Fairdealer
Firstly all the best for 2021 to you & yours, & thanks for your sensible summaries of where Mars is at the appropriate times, market looking perky today but not much appetite (thirst?) for this stock currently, I guess it is travelling & arriving, now we have arrived there is possibly a feeling that perhaps there remain specific hurdles to clear ?

YoYoMa
All the best to you & yours too, 2020 was certainly a year I'll be pleased to see the back of.
No chance of you buying a Tesla next year I trust ?

Trent
If market is good on Tuesday MARS should go up a bit but do bear in mind this is not really effected significantly by Brexit but much more by Covid news. So AZN approval is a positive but the old saying "buy on the strike, sell on the settlement" could also be relevant here....

Boards & Scharnhorst
All the very best for 2021 and thanks for the banter and left field views in 2020 !

Trent
Thanks and same to you & yours

Trent
You have articulated very succinctly some of my fears re this deal, in a perfect world economies of scale could work, but seasoned Marstons watchers have rarely benefited from these, more likely have tumbled over the unannounced tripwire !

Fair Dealer , YoYoMa & Mysterious
Yes the market certainly seems to like it, but the more I think it over the chancier it seems to be.
I am guessing that there will be a price to pay to keep these "taken on" premises up to the standard MARS are now setting themselves elsewhere, also guessing that these "new" pubs might not be "profit accretive" as swiftly as hoped, these things rarely are & if either of these 2 guesses are correct it reduces the free cash flow needed to cut into their debt mountain. This was an essential target of the new Chair even before covid so I can't, without Daave's sort of knowledge of licensed premises likely cash flow in these circumstancee, be anything but very cautious.
So Daave, if you have any thoughts please,they will likely be very interesting.

Turnpan
Lordy, red barrel, what a shocking drink, it's not still available is it ?

Interesting deal today with Mars taking on the running of Brains pubs in Wales, as per rns just out.