COMPANIES from the telecoms, energy and retail sectors will post annual results this week in another busy few days for corporate updates.
Mobile phone giant Vodafone should be in upbeat mood when it reveals full year results on Tuesday. Earnings guidance has already been upgraded twice, with the latest increase, in February, pointing towards underlying profits at the top end of a range of between £11.8 billion and £12.2 billion.
Vodafone also solved one of its major strategic headaches in April with the sale of its 44% stake in French mobile phone group SFR. That sale raised £7 billion, of which £4 billion is earmarked to be handed back to shareholders.
Vodafone’s other major strategic chestnut is its 45% stake in US mobile giant Verizon Wireless which it may sell. But with the only realistic buyer being its US partner, some analysts doubt whether it could get full value.
Consensus forecasts are for revenues for the year to March 2011 to rise by 2% to £45.5 billion.
Britain’s second largest pub firm, Enterprise Inns, is expected to report a drop in profits at the half-year stage tomorrow, but is expected to do well in the full year.
City analysts expect to see some recovery in trade since the first quarter of 2011, in light of improved beer sales reported by the British Beer and Pub Association after a tough year which saw Enterprise and other firms decline.
Management at Enterprise, which owns more than 6,500 leasehold and tenanted pubs, is aiming for flat quarterly like-for-like income by the end of the year as they plan to sell 450 to 500 tail-end pubs, invest £60m. The group is on track to hit its disposal target of £250m this year. Analysts have forecast pre-tax profits of £70m for the six months to March, down on £86m last year and based on revenues of £338m, down from £371m a year earlier.
Scottish & Southern Energy customers will be looking for signs of further bill hikes on Friday when the gas and electricity supplier reports its full-year results.
SSE, the UK’s second biggest energy firm with 9.3 million customer accounts, reported a drop in profits in the six months to September and blamed the plunge on soaring wholesale gas prices. The company was the first UK energy supplier to raise bills, lifting gas prices by 9.4% on December 1, which is expected to keep SSE on course to meet analysts’ forecasts for full-year profits of around £1.3 billion.
Struggling retailer Mothercare is expected to reveal a slump in full-year profits on Wednesday, amid speculation it is planning to increase the rate of store closures after shutting 26 this year.
The retailer, which has 377 Mothercare and Early Learning Centre stores in the UK and Ireland, has issued two profit warnings this year as it scraps for trade amid tough competition on the high street. Analysts expect operating profits to fall 13% to £29.7m after like-for-like sales for the year to March 26 were down 4%.
