Friday preview: Coca-Cola HBC reports first quarter interims

12th May 2016 13:41

(ShareCast News) - Beverage bottler Coca-Cola HBC is expected to report a drop in first quarter sales on Friday, on tough comparators in the previous year and weakness in emerging markets.Numis has forecast sales of €1.30bn in the first quarter of 2016, down from €1.35bn the same time a year ago.The broker noted that the first quarter of 2015 had enjoyed an extra four selling days and an early Easter which supported a 7.2% increase in sales volumes.Easter was even earlier in 2016 but the four extra days were not repeated, Numis said.Numis also highlighted that Coca-Cola HBC has disclosed a "high single-digit volume" decline for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus operations and "mid-single-digit" growth for West Africa.On the upside, the company has said that trading conditions in Europe are slowing improving as lower oil prices aided the consumer."We assume around 20.4% of our full year sales estimate arises in the first quarter to give a -3.6% result," said Numis analyst Charles Pick.Friday 13 May INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Oxford Technology 3 VCT QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE Marsh & Mclennan Cos Inc. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Business Inventories (US) (13:30) Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00) GDP (Flash Estimate) (EU) (10:00) GDP (Flash Estimate) (GER) (07:00) Producer Price Index (US) (13:30) Retail Sales (US) (13:30) Retail Sales Less Autos (US) (13:30) GMS Kodal Minerals AGMS Brady, Brammer, Irish Continental Group Units, Princess Private Equity Holding Ltd., Tyman TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE 4Imprint Group, Arbuthnot Banking Group, ARM Holdings, British Polythene Industries, Capital & Regional, Clarke (T.), Devro, Drax Group, Integrated Diagnostics Holdings, InterContinental Hotels Group, International Personal Finance, John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd, Johnson Service Group, JPMorgan American Inv Trust, Kerry Group 'A' Shares, Kingspan Group, Man Group, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, Phoenix Group Holdings (DI), RSA Insurance Group, Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) 'B' Limited, Smurfit Kappa Group, St James's Place Q1 New Europe Property Investments