Member Info for barchid

So that sight of the delayed trade was over the morning "spirit cut distillation" schnapps ration ?
The Senior Service gave their rum at 11.00 I believe.
Judging by the time of your post, 11.21, I assume Scharnhorst schnapps ration was at a similar time....

@Scooby
I did indeed see that this morning, most done yesterday & reported later from what I could make out.
Perhaps this could be a turning point, I guess they were placed ?

@Scharnhorst
"a good product that few people want", not unlike the battleship you share a name with ?
I suspect no one cares about IC sheep, but the larger issue is surely that if a lot of people have done badly in this stock they will think twice before reinvesting ?
It has normally traded on a wide discount to book but that is usual with VC companies, surely.
A couple of decent disposals though, would work like magic on the sp, imho.

@Jim/FD
Thanks for your confirmations to my observations of apparent current pub footfall, I was really surprised last week to see so few.
Totally agree with FD on do we keep everyone "safe" or do we try to keep them in jobs. To show my age, which puts me in the "at risk" category, when I first started work in the stock market I was just in time to catch the HK flu in 68/69.
The whole firm had it, as did most people, we mostly struggled into work, travelling on overcrowded trains but everything kept open and it soon died out, estimates of deaths in UK by it vary, as we did not have rolling news then, but up to 45,000 seems the median.
We had a population then of 52m, so it was significant, I really have my doubts as to whether lockdown was clever or could we have followed Sweden.
I have no qualifications to make that judgement, but I do wonder.

Scooby
Thanks for clarifying that, I was only going from memory as I didn't have their accounts to hand when responding to you.
I think we are both pretty much in agreement on this company, after all there is a price for everything !
I openly admit to being a cynic on the management at MERC, but not such a big one that I don't see the potential value. I suspect a lot of investors feel let down on this stock (not least the Investors Chronicle team who had pushed this from the higher levels to their readers) which could be why the shares have been languishing recently ?

Astonished to hear you congratulate someone who was a Bull from £30 to current level.
Are you for real ?

Scooby
I largely agree with you but are you sure that native antigen was in the accounts at cost & not the MERC fair value calculation ?
Most stocks I am aware that they hold are in at their "fair value" if that is the case the realised profit will not be that large, I presume ?
Yes management do have some skin in the game but they amply reward themselves with option allocations which I find a little difficult to swallow when the share price has been in a tailspin from 60p to 18p as Boards points out.
I do think getting away from Woodford & Barnett is a good thing, also the replacement of Ms Searle, their Chair who we shared with Woodford which I never saw the sense in.
They were most reluctant to change her too, which still raises governance issues in my mind.
Nevertheless, everything has a price & this does seem pretty low, hence my dipping a toe in again.

Report in todays Guardian business saying 1 in 4 of licensed premises in UK still not open coupled with widespread reports of a possible 9pm curfew in Scotland & 10pm in England can hardly help sentiment, despite more people back in offices, e.g. JPM today in Canary Wharf.
I went from Docklands to Chelsea late last week for lunch in Builders Arms, just off Kings Road, normally heaving every lunchtime, we were the only table eating, going there on the tube only 1 in 5 or 6 seats were being used and coming back by taxi very little sign of activity in the pubs we passed. Indeed the 'Spoons, back of the Minories, appeared to have just a few punters in, normally very busy to packed that time of day. This weekend's "last hurrah" was clearly good but going fwd ?
Hopefully things can only improve, question is when ?

Boards
I did decide to join the crustaceans again on Friday, just dipped my toe into the rock pool but I think from my last sale in November at 27.8 it was a case of pee or get off of the pot ! With the turmoil going on with fund managers at present my line of thinking was that it could be taken under the wing of a larger house who wants exposure to tax wrapper products, especially now Woodford & Barnett are out of their picture, it makes for a much freer float. I certainly lost nothing by my cynicism & waiting, whether or not I gain anything remains to be seen !

Boards
Very difficult as to where support lies. In reality I think this is as good an entry point as any we have seen, yes a big discount to perceived nav but that is not unusual in VC as we well know. I suspect they are scarred by the constant underperformance of management, even at these levels. But down here, in present climate, they could well prove a good lth. If they had a couple of their holdings become listed at good levels that would change everything.
I am looking to go in now, tbh. Have traded in them over the years with moderate success, (better than my EIS/SEIS with them!), I like the fact that the twitterati seem to have lost faith, that is normally a good sign, empty vessels etc....

@Boards
Sorry for the tardy reply but "she who must be obeyed" has been ill so I've been making my own thermidor.
Well this almost beats the Scarecrow (RSC variety) youtube but I guess he is way too busy lecturing anyone who will listen as to why the various Covid stocks should be bought, just to keep the medical lecturing still live on the linkedin page.
Certainly MRC have not been a Covid hedge, despite the inordinant interest shown by the ****terati in it.
Any patient MRC watcher would have known their mantra, promise more & deliver less & so it seems to be going on. Every time one of their "wonder companies" got a puff it was never enough to move the dial.
So scarecrows like Crows, lounge lizards like lobsters...
Maybe at 18p we see the low ?
I have my doubts, but who knows eh ?

@roll
I'd have thought that re-investing dividends would have started yesterday but there were only 7 trades showing, so apparently not.
WRT a special divi, it has to be on the cards as a possibility, but from memory they normally are paid, if at all, every second year and we had one last autumn. This year has been seriously good for them though, thus fingers crossed.

@Qd22
I suggest you ask Rivaldo, he has been puffing this from £30 to sub £3 !
Check back and you will see I am not exaggerating....
Personally this co looks like a crock of cr@p, other than that the old boss is now back in the saddle, perhaps he wants to take it private ?

@Turnpan
A very astute observation, sad indeed.
All we want to do is discuss MARS, what is seiously sad is that super-ramper quotes figures which are patently incorrect, re MARS. Not even sure if he is aware he does it ?

I wish you would keep it Marston's related for everyone's sake.

Supercharger
Just relax perhaps ?
I'm interested in Marston's not waffle.
Spend some time with their website perhaps ?

Supercharger
Just relax perhaps ?
I'm interested in Marston's not waffle.
Spend some time with their website perhaps ?

@supercharger
You have now told everyone to relax so many times that I am starting to suspect that you are a closet fan of Frankie goes to Hollywood ?
As for advising us to keep looking at the website, oddly enough I have been doing that in the 5 or 6 years I've been a holder in MARS,which is why I could point out that your statement of 2000 pubs being in the estate was much too high.
I am a great believer in posters looking at websites, & RNS announcements.
Relax......

@Fiona
I am sure you are correct, my post a week ago gave the last 2 years dates in October of their updates and now with CMA as well it is very likely they will structure it as you say.
They most definitely will give out no price sensitive information until the RNS or similar no matter who asks, that's a given.

Is there anything concrete that you can share with us?
Or are they just giving you information which they do not wish to disclose publicly?
That sounds most unlikely to me.
We know that October is when they traditionally give shareholders the latest update, are you saying that we will hear before then ?
Please advise as market sentiment changes almost daily on this stock so I personally put little value on that, e.g. today we are down 1.5%, despite what happened yesterday.