Normally a preliminary results announcement would be of the uppermost interest when thinking about the daily newsflow grind around a FTSE-100 company. However, for Whitbread (WTB) today its own preliminary update is superseded by a rights issue announcement from the owner/operator of the Premier Inn franchise. A rights issue! In the current era of placings, it felt like a blast from the past to have a table showing the indicative timing of events...
I have loved up Whitbread (WTB) shares many times on this website, most recently here where I noted it was trying to do the right thing for their employees. Friday's short regulatory update - which confirmed that the company was an 'eligible issuer under the UK Government's Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF)' also noted 'as at 16 April the business has accessible cash reserves of c.£400 million and access to £900 million of its existing committed Revolving Credit Facility (RCF)' which certainly gives them a bit of time and flexibility.
Let's face it, nobody really knows but you do not need to be an investing genius to know that Sunday newspaper headlines about the lockdown persisting until June is not good news if you are an investor or an entrepreneur. Yes, you can push out a bunch of mitigation tactics and - yes - governments and central banks are stepping up, but the longer this period of time goes on for, the harder it gets for everyone.
Hello, Share Diggers. When I was looking for a hotel in the Smoke last month, I was shocked that Premier Inn, a so-called budget hotel, wanted £360 for two nights, a huge increase on my room last year. I bet they’re not charging that now. This brings me no joy, especially as this family has shares in Whitbread (WTB) which owns Premier.
Yet the one or two deaths it brought to Britons become headline news. Can you possibly imagine every flu death being treated in the same way? Meanwhile, there are signs of that China, the source of the outbreak, is seeing a drying up of cases. That’s surely likely to happen everywhere.
I am playing a bit of catch-up today but my first port of call has to be yesterday's interim numbers from the Premier Inn and Beefeater owner Whitbread (WTB), which I have loved-up many times on these pages. Helpfully it sold off Costa for a pretty penny but the share has been a bit desultory year-to-date, including failing a couple of times at the c. fifty quid level. In a way I am almost surprised it did not fall more yesterday…
A bit of a 'same old, same old' feeling to today's crop of regulatory news statements and Whitbread (WTB) is indicative of this. I said back in February that the owner of Premier Inn had a plan – and I think that remains the case. Or as it put it…
Hello, Share Clangers. When I’m away on business, which is rather too often for my liking, I prefer to stay in Premier Inns. My reason is not that I think they’re great but that because, as a shareholder, I nab two nights for one at weekends. However, I don't hold the shares for this handy perk, but because the room prices are comparatively cheap – which is what stingy customers want these days...
Hello Share Treaters. As a customer of Premier Inn hotels and not a coffee drinker in Costas, I was pleased Whitbread (WTB) has just sold its coffee places to Coca-Cola this month. Costa coffee shops always look a bit bland to me with few of the quirky attractions offered by independent purveyors. While Premier Inn hotel rooms are very reasonable and convenient in city centres. Plus, if you are a shareholder, you get two nights for the price of one at weekends.
As I described a couple of months ago HERE, one of my investing highlights of 2018 has been the bid by the soda behemoth Coca-Cola for the Costa Coffee business of Whitbread (WTB). This left the FTSE-100 name with one major asset, its hotels business Premier Inn...and a bunch of speculation about whether it would look to encourage bids for this asset too...or use some of its windfall to accelerate the growth of the value-centric hotel brand.
Hello, Share Markers. I admit it. The reason I bought into Whitebread (WTB) a year and half ago was to bag the shareholder perk of one night for the price of two at its Premier Inns. With it came money off at its various restaurants and a voucher for coffee at Costa.
