Performance of the underlying business should see an improvement over the fourth quarter, but earnings will decline for the year as a whole. Mr Hampton had been sceptical about maintaining the dividend but his exit has soothed doubts about the 2003 payout.TODAY: Results: Full year – Bioprogress; Bovis Homes; IMI; Intertek; John Fisher; John [...]
Performance of the underlying business should see an improvement over the fourth quarter, but earnings will decline for the year as a whole. Mr Hampton had been sceptical about maintaining the dividend but his exit has soothed doubts about the 2003 payout.TODAY: Results: Full year – Bioprogress; Bovis Homes; IMI; Intertek; John Fisher; John Wood; Lloyds TSB; Taylor Nelson Sofres; Travis Perkins; WSP Group. Interims – Town Centre Securities.TOMORROW: Hays’ personnel division is now the focus for the investment community. The group has slowly divested its logistics operations and all that remains of its non-core assets is the mail business, the exit from which is expected soon.
Analysts are expecting an 8 per cent jump in profits to £58m from Hays’ personnel operations, as this highly cyclical business recovers from the downturn of the past few years. Overall, an interim pre-tax profit of £84m is forecast from the group, largely flat on the same period last year.Recovering housing demand over the past six months will have boosted interim results at Redrow. Brokers are forecasting the house builder to post a pre-tax profit of £58m, up from £52m previously. Redrow’s strengths have traditionally lain in its low average cost and production efficiency, and there is no reason to see why this will not again be evident at the company’s next set of figures.Results: Full year – Aegis; Antofagasta; Bodycote International; Cairn Energy; Chorion; French Connection; Lookers; Peterhouse; SIG. Interims – Hays; Redrow.WEDNESDAY: Smiths Group’s upcoming interims will be an important set of figures for the industrial conglomerate.
There have been suggestions from some quarters of the City that the group’s current strategy is incapable of delivering growth and it is up to Smiths’ management team to prove them wrong.Among the group’s critics is Morgan Stanley. Back in January, the broker was heard warning investors that Smiths could well disappoint and it even suggested that the company may have to issue a profits warning for the full year. It is of the view that Smiths has now reached a size whereby its tradition of making small bolt-on acquisitions is no longer able to drive the earnings growth that the market expects. Various disposals over the past 12 months have raised £900m, which should help annual pre-tax profits at Lloyds rise to around £4.3bn from £2.6bn a year earlier.
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