Young’s has the type of estate that would currently be the envy of most pub companies: high-quality boozers in and around central London. Such pubs have not only been holding up exceptionally well to the economic challenges but have been thriving.
Young’s, which has now divested itself from its brewing interests to focus on running its 152 establishments, reported like-for-like sales growth of 4 per cent in its managed houses in the first half. The overall performance was boosted by the recent acquisition of Geronimo, which owns 30 pubs. But while underlying earnings per share (EPS) was ahead 10.7 per cent at 18.7p, the reported numbers were blighted by a £28.5m non-cash loss associated with a property revaluation. However, the gains from the revaluation, which for accounting reasons have to be booked as reserve while losses go through the profit and loss account, seriously outweighted this exceptional charge, and the net uplift in the value of the estate was a hearty £174m to £497m.
The group’s 16 hotels are performing extremely well, despite their cyclical nature, and revenue per available room jumped 14.3 per cent in the half year. And, helped by the unusually good weather, Young’s is off to a storming start to the second half with managed house like-for-like sales ahead by 5.4 per cent.
Broker Peel Hunt forecasts full year adjusted EPS of 31.5p (2011: 28.3p).
| Young & Co's Brewery (YGNA) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 640p | MARKET VALUE: | £286m* | |
| TOUCH: | 630-650p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 712p | LOW: 545p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.1% | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 643p | NET DEBT: | 40% | |
| Half-year to 3 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 67.7 | 10.9 | 28.2 | 6.36 |
| 2012 | 90.4 | -16.1 | -30.1 | 6.68 |
| % change | +34 | - | - | +5 |
Ex-div: 30 Nov Payment: 16 Dec *Includes non-voting shares | ||||
