Tuesday newspaper share tips: Liverpool FC, The Restaurant Group

There are two types of football clubs in the English Premier League -- those that win silverware and those that don't, opines Financial Times' Lex column.

Both types were expensive.

The column cited Manchester United as a silverware winner, and Aston Villa and Liverpool Football Club as the other type.

Of the latter, it contended that this had not discouraged Chinese investment group Everbright from reportedly offering to buy an undisclosed stake.

"A dearth of trophies has barely troubled Liverpool's bottom line," contended Lex, looking more closely at the business.

Earnings before player trading had risen to £62m, from £4m since 2012 on revenues demonstrating compound annual growth of 19%.

"Liverpool is a sports marketing company with a football club attached," said Lex.

It observed that broadcast and commercial revenues accounted for about 80% of sales.

Even though the club missed a Champions League spot, the Premier League's £5.1bn television deal should help the Anfield outfit's revenues rise again this footy season.

But, asserted the column, there were areas for the club to improve.

Match days had been falling as a proportion of revenues, and, unlike the ad-rich US broadcasting of sports, football had just one 15-minute slot.

Stadium capacity and high fan turn-out for matches partly compensated for these, with Liverpool planning to hike its capacity by 18%.

But, noted the column, fan loyalty could only be exploited so far. Higher ticket prices were already a sticking point for many.

The potential to win supporters among something like 580m Asian football fans was promising.

"Without silverware, there is a limit to what even the most diehard fan will pay," concluded Lex.

Meantime, The Times' Tempus column suggested avoiding shares in The Restaurant Group, arguing the market appeared to be already pricing in any recovery.

The column pondered how much difficulty the company was in following three poor trading updates this year, along with the departure of its finance director and chief executive.

All would be revealed on Friday, Tempus said, when The Restaurant Group issued its interim numbers. Analysts were anticipating a cut in dividend.

"The company has already scaled back the number of new openings from 45 a year to perhaps 30, and further cutbacks are likely," the column wrote.

"There will probably be some disposals and further cost-cutting at head office.

"It is unlikely there will be more wide-ranging initiatives until Andy McCue, the former chief executive at Paddy Power, arrives next month, even if some are speculating about a possible break-up of the group."

Tempus asserted that the problem was almost entirely at Frankie & Benny's, whose 260-odd sites totted up to about half of the group.

"This is a tired format, and one option is to convert some to others, such as the expanding Coast to Coast chain."

The column said Frankie & Benny's was suffering from rivalry, pricing difficulties and an over-expansion that had seen new restaurants competing with those already existing.

Tempus said The Restaurant Group's shares had been a disaster area.

"After trading solidly at about the £7 mark, they plunged to little more than 250p last month and, after some recovery, fell by 3.5p to 420.5p in yesterday's soggy market.

"They sell on almost 15-times' earnings, which suggested the good news is already in the price."