5/18/2026
Marston’s Investor Attacks ‘Lazy’ Bosses as Shares Slump
The Times (London) (05/18/26)
Bradley Radoff has urged the bosses of pub group Marston’s to sell off sites and use the proceeds to pay down debt and reward shareholders, following a rapid fall in its share price. Bradley Radoff, who owns about 3% of the shares in the Wolverhampton-based pub group, went on the attack last week amid a share slump that has wiped roughly £70 million from the company’s market value since the start of 2026. He said: “I’m asking the board to be its own ‘activist’ and solve the problem immediately. The board is lazy.” Marston’s is one of Britain’s biggest pub companies with about 1,300 pubs across the country and an annual turnover of almost £900 million. However, it is sitting on debts of £860 million as of late March. The company has cut net debt by more than £400 million since 2023 and has said it will not return funds to shareholders until debt has reached a certain threshold. Marston’s said last week that the net value of its assets per share was £1.28. But its shares closed last week at 45p. Radoff claimed the difference between the value of the company’s assets and its share price meant bosses were “getting an ‘F’ right now from the market.” He said: “The problem is, [they’re] asking us to wait another year, which I don’t accept. I’m saying you have to have an immediate plan when your stock’s trading at a 65% discount.” Radoff added that Marston’s could look at selling off everything from small packages of pubs to its entire estate of leased and tenanted pubs — sites that it leases to landlords rather than running them itself. This totals almost 140 sites. “There’s a bucket of stuff where they could say, ‘Over the next 12 to 24 months, we’re going to start selling these, and we’re going to accelerate the deleveraging, and we’re going to immediately start a buyback’,” he said. “If they came out and said … ‘Given the disconnect in our share price, we decided to go sell 20 pubs for £30 million, and we’re using half of that to do a buyback and half to pay down debt’ … the stock may go [up] 20%.” Based in Houston, Texas, Radoff is a serial investor known for buying up shares in companies that he believes are undervalued, and then pushing for change. He disclosed his stake in Marston’s last October. In January, he voted against the re-election of its non-executive directors at the company’s annual meeting. His comments come after Marston’s last week posted a 1.1% drop in revenues over the six months to March 28, to £422.7 million. However, pre-tax profits rose by 19.5% to £23.3 million and is on track to meet full-year targets. Justin Platt, the company’s chief executive, kicked off a turnaround plan after joining in January 2024. This has included introducing new Grandstand pubs, which are designed for sports fans, as well as Woodie’s, a new pub brand for families. Platt said last week that these were “delivering very attractive commercial returns.” Shares in Marston’s had risen to a 52-week high before mid-January, when they began to drop. Like other listed pubs groups, they have traded consistently below pre-pandemic levels. Many pub companies will be hoping for a boost later this year as Britons flock to bars to watch the World Cup. The pub sector has faced a barrage of costs and tax rises in recent years, while high living costs have hampered consumer spending. A Marston’s spokesman said: “We continuously engage with our shareholders and always welcome their views on capital allocation.”
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