Friday preview: British Airways, United Utilities

20th May 2010 16:19

British Airways cannot have had many worse years than 2009/10 and the pain is not over yet with another 20 days of strike action threatened by cabin crew from May.On Thursday a court overturned an injunction blocking a series of strikes, prompting the airline to resort to classic British understatement in a message on its web site which said the company was “very disappointed” that the Unite union's appeal has been upheld.The industrial action adds another calamity to a list of blows suffered by the airline which include the volcanic ash cloud, a major global recession and a recurring pension fund headache. There have been bright spots, with the company finally sealing the deal on its merger with Spain’s Iberia. The share price has also rallied on hopes of further consolidation deals. Expect a big loss; Commerzbank predicts an underlying operating deficit of £247m on sales of £8bn while Charles Stanley is going for a £600m pre-tax loss, “which will include an estimated £45m hit from the 7 days of strikes by the cabin crew in March, bad winter weather disruption and the impact from the global recession.”While British Airways has been hogging the headlines with its annus horribilis water company United Utilities has been keeping a lower profile, though it has had to face its own traumatic experience in the form of regulating body Ofwat’s final price determination for the next five-year regulatory period 2010-15, which the company described as “challenging”.Broker Charles Stanley expects the company to announce a pre-tax profit of £510m, down from £532m the year before, with a dividend of 34.3p, up from 32.7p.“The regulated business is expected to deliver a “modest” increase in underlying operating profit (2009A: £679m) on allowed price rises (6% incl. inflation), partly offset by reduced demand and well-flagged ongoing cost pressures (power and bad debts). Capex [capital expenditure] is expected to be over £600m (incl. infrastructure renewals),” the broker said.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAlbemarle & BondQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEEquity Partnership Income SharesINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Payments (EU) (09:00)Current Account (EU) (09:00)IFO Business Climate (GER) (10:00)IFO Current Assessment (GER) (10:00)IFO Expectations (GER) (10:00)Q4British AirwaysFINALSBritish Airways, BTG, London Stock Exchange Group, United Utilities GroupANNUAL REPORTEnergetix, VphaseIMSSClose Brothers GroupAGMSAFI Development GDR (Reg S), Alliance Trust, Concurrent Technologies, Invesco Perpetual UK Small Companies Inv Trust, John Menzies, Martin Currie Portfolio Trust, Mercury Recycling, Michael Page International, National Bank of Greece ADR, OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel GDR (Reg S), OJSC Polyus Gold ADR, Pan Pacific Aggregates, PowerFilm (Reg S), Premier Oil, Robert Walters, S & U, TotalUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSM4 Money Supply (estimate) (09:30)M4 Sterling Lending (estimate) (09:30)Mortgage Approvals (09:30)Public Sector Finances (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAggreko, Arena Leisure, BBA Aviation, BG Group, British Smaller Technology Companies VCT 2, Costain Group, Dunedin Income Growth Inv Trust, Edinburgh US Tracker Trust, Greggs, Hellenic Carriers, International Personal Finance, Johnson Service Group, office2office, Paddy Power, Petrofac Ltd., Reed Elsevier, Sagicor Financial Corporation, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Tullow Oil