The M&C20 outperformed the FTSE All-Share index for the sixth week in a row this week, growing 1.4% to 1,200 while the FTSE All-Share could only manage a 0.8% increase to 1,019.
National pub companies were among the strongest performers, with Enterprise Inns up 5.9%, Spirit up 4.1%, Marston’s up 2.1% and Punch Taverns up 3.7%.
Investor confidence in the latter appears to have grown after the company expressed confidence last week that it would complete its debt restructuring in the second half of 2013. There will be hope of further progress after the company announced this morning that a committee of its senior bondholders under the auspices of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which had earlier described Punch’s restructuring proposals as being “some distance away from being acceptable to us”, has now joined the process of engagement regarding its debt restructuring.
More generally, news that pubs outperformed restaurants in August, according to the latest Coffer Peach Business Tracker, may also have benefitted pubs groups. Like-for-likes among pub companies increased by 2.5%, while for casual dining chains the increase was just 0.3%.
JD Wetherspoon, which this morning reported a 5.8% rise in like-for-like sales in the year to 28 July, albeit with a slowing of like-for-like growth to 2.5% for the last fortnight, saw its share price rise 1.9%, although there was a slight dip this morning.
Among national restaurant companies, The Restaurant Group was the strongest performer at +4%. Dominos grew 0.8% and Prezzo was flat.
Across the M&C20, the only significant dip was for Cineworld (-2.3%), whose share price has fallen for the third consecutive week after the Competition Commission said that it may have to sell cinemas in three areas of the country. Overall its share price has fallen 7.5% in the past three weeks.
