Marston’s – is this pub chain going to do well from World Cup 2026? Q3 Update will tell us, shares at 46.50p are cheap nonetheless.

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 11.06.2026

It seems quite appropriate that just as Elon Musk and his crew are heading off to Mars, that I should suggest that with the start of the FIFA World Cup investors should be heading into MARS!

I am sidestepping the SpaceX IPO discussion, instead steering a hopefully boozy way into Marston’s Pubs over the next few weeks.

For the majority of football fans, the cost of seats at all or even any of the World Cup games is extortionate.

However, popping into any of the 1,300 pubs within the estate of Marston’s (LON:MARS) could give drinkers another type of experience.

The FIFA World Cup 2026

Today sees the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026 - the 23rd edition of the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA.

The tournament will take place from today until Sunday, 19^th July.

It will be jointly hosted by sixteen cities—eleven in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada.

The tournament will be the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three nations, and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from 32 previously.

Marston’s – Increasing Sales

It is more than possible that UK football fans will be avidly watching as many games as possible, whether at home or by popping into any of their local hostelries to imbibe quite a few pints of their favourite drinks.

With some 1,300 such friendly locations, it is considered that Marston’s stands a very good chance of increasing its daily and weekly turnovers during the World Cup period.

Marston’s has been at the heart of the British beer and pub industry for nearly 200 years, with a rich heritage dating back to 1834 when John Marston first began brewing at the Horninglow Brewery in Burton upon Trent.

It is one of the UK’s leading local pub companies, employing some 9,000 people across a diverse community-based estate of more than 1,300 pubs, bars and inns.

Its purpose is to bring people together for shared good times, through its welcoming local teams and differentiated local pub formats stretching the length and breadth of the UK, from Cornwall to Inverness, providing the perfect setting for every guest, every community and every occasion.

Recent Results

On Tuesday, 12^th May, the £293m-capitalised group reported its Interim Results for the 26 weeks ended Saturday, 28^th March, showing stable underlying EBITDA of £85.9m, with an improved underlying EBITDA margin of 20.3%.

The group’s revenue was £422.7m, a slight decrease of 1.1% year-on-year, impacted by temporary pub closures for format refurbishments.

However, pre-tax profit increased 7.9% to £20.5m.

The company completed 60 new pub format refurbishments, exceeding its target, with these new formats delivering an average Return on Invested Capital of 35% and like-for-like growth of approximately 20%.

Capital expenditure rose to £39.0m, and net debt reduced by 2.7% to £857.7m (excluding IFRS 16), with leverage improving to 4.7x.

The group declared that it remains on track to meet full-year expectations, anticipating strong summer trading driven by new pub formats and upcoming events.

Broker Views

Analyst Anna Barnfarther, at Panmure Liberum, rates the group’s shares as a Buy, while setting a Target Price of 80p.

Following the Interim Results, she stated that they showed continued strategy execution, with format investment delivering attractive returns, margins progressing and deleveraging remaining on track.

Like-for-like trading was varied, reflecting softer midweek demand and a tough April comparative, but peak trading remained strong, and the converted estate was performing well.

Her estimates for the current year to end-September, are for sales of £906.0m (£898.0m), with pre-tax profits of £77.2m (£72.1m), generating earnings of 9.0p (8.3p) per share, while net debt could fall to £1,138.0m (£1,205.7m).

For the coming 2027 year, she goes for £928.0m sales, £86.6m profits, with earnings of 10.1p per share.

Going further ahead, the 2028 estimate is for £951.0m sales, £98.0m profits, and 11.4p per share earnings.

My View

Panmure Liberum reckons that this group’s net asset value is close to 128p per share, compared to the current 46.50p, which shows a very attractive discount.

They trade at just 5.6 times historic earnings and 5.2 times current-year earnings – that is far too cheap!

Hopes for loads of imbibing in the next few weeks could well engender fresh interest for the group’s shares, which I consider are on their way back up to trade above the 60p level very shortly.

Perhaps the Q3 Trading Update, due on Wednesday 22^nd July, will help matters.

I now set a new SQC Research Target Price at 60p, with its shares at 46.50p.

(Profile 28.01.26 @ 60p set a Target Price of 75p)

(Profile 11.06.26 @ 46.50p set a Target Price of 60p)

Bring it home