Date: Tuesday 20 Jan 2015
LONDON (ShareCast) - Pub operator Greene King has seen a slowdown in its sales for the fiscal year-to-date, but its recent purchase of rival Spirit Pub Company will pay off. In the 36 weeks since the start of the financial year like-for-like sales were ahead by 0.6%, a mediocre result, even if it was partially due to tough comparators.
There also fears regarding the price paid for Spirit Pub, but they are misplaced. For starters, there are not so many opportunities to expand so far that quickly. So investors should not have qualms about the price paid. That purchase will create Britain's largest managed pubs operator, putting it in a better position to benefit from any improvement in consumer spending in 2015. Neither are markets taking into account the potential for extra benefits which will accrue from selling the Old Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale brands. Buy, says The Times's Tempus.
Alliance Pharma's stock has been flat-lining of late, but the firm's strategy is sound. What the company does best is to hoover up those compounds which are too small for the big pharma outfits to go after, instead of developing its own - a rather painstaking endeavour. Unfortunately, the outfit has suffered several setbacks of late, such as increased competition from rival Irish drugs for its Nu-seals aspirin treatment. Such headwinds mean the company's profits will not improve either this year or next. On top of that, while the firm still has £60m with which to continue scooping up promising assets the timing of those is hard to predict. Not a lot to go for over the next couple of years, so avoid, Tempus says.
35.40p
