Friday preview: Close Brothers, Invensys, Retail Sales

21st Jan 2010 16:41

Close Brothers is set to release an interim statement that is unlikely to see the merchant bank dominating the Editorial pages of the newspapers in another outbreak of banker bashing.The bank said in November it expects a solid performance for the current financial year after all three of its divisions had a decent first quarter. Results on Thursday from wealth manager St. James's Place suggest that funds under management at Close Brothers should have seen a healthy increase at the end of the year, while the group's banking book was recently beefed up with the acquisition of the £94m invoice financing loan book of GMAC Commercial Finance for a maximum of £98m.Engineer Invensys has some catching up to do in the second half of its financial year having been behind 2008 levels at the halfway point at the end of September. 'In the second half, we believe that Invensys Operations Management should have a significant improvement in performance and Invensys Rail will produce another robust result. Invensys Controls should also produce a good improvement in performance in a more stable market,' said Ulf Henriksson, chief executive of the company.Switching to the economic scene, UK retail sales are projected to have risen 1.1% in December after falling 0.3% in November. The December index is expected to be around 3.0% higher than the December 2008 level, as shoppers rushed to grab bargains before the rise in VAT.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAcal, Cable & Wireless, Cranswick, Latham (James), London and Associated Properties, Speedy HireEGMSEvolution Group, Wynnstay PropertiesAGMSAdvanced Power Components, Lowland Investment Co.FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEMBL GroupUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSRetail SalesTRADING UPDATEClose Brothers, Invensys