London pre-open: Early dip on the cards

25th Jun 2009 07:40

A weak finish in the US last night will send London around 10 points lower in early deals, according to futures prices.BP has appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, currently chief executive officer of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, to replace Peter Sutherland as chairman. Svanberg, who is also chairman of Sony Ericsson and a non-executive director of Melker Schörling AB, will join the BP board as chairman-designate and a non-executive director on September 1, 2009. He will succeed Sutherland on January 1, 2010 and step down at year-end after seven years as Ericsson chief executive and Sony Ericsson chairman.Full-year underlying profit plunged 78% at electrical retailer DSG International as the recession forces consumers to rethink spending. The Currys and PC World owner said it doesn't expect conditions to improve any time this year as it announced an underlying profit before tax of £50.5m for the 52 weeks ended 2 May, down from £225.6m a year ago. Underlying sales fell 1% to £8.23bn and by 9% on a like for like basis. Sales in the UK & Ireland dropped 11% to £4.23bn and 11% like for like. Underlying operating profit sank 63% to £58.7m.Financial software firm Misys has had a pretty decent year, boosting reported revenue by about 40% to £695m, adjusted profit from continuing operations by over 40% and like for like revenue by 3%. In a trading statement ahead of final figures, due later next month, it added that on a proforma like-for-like basis, adjusted operating profit increased by about 15%. Total reported order intake increased by around 60% to approximately £430m. Like for like revenue grew about 5% at the Banking business, but fell 2% at Treasury & Capital Markets.Acquisitive legacy software specialist Micro Focus reported a 30.8% rise in full year pre-tax profits but warned that the impact of the recent Compuware acquisition is expected to reduce the overall group margin. Adjusted pre-tax profit increased to $115.9m in the year ended 30 April compared with $88.6m last time. Revenues rose by 20.4% to $274.7m on the preceding year, reflecting, in part, the contribution of recent acquisitions. The group has proposed a final dividend of 11.1 cents per share, taking the total dividend for the year up 20% to 15.6 centsEngineering and construction group Costain said trading has continued in line with expectations, helped by some large contracts with blue chip and public sector customers. It said its forward order book stands at a record £2.4bn, up by 20% compared with 30 June last year, including £900m of work secured for 2009. Engineering firm Keller said it has seen no significant change in its trading or outlook since its interim management statement five weeks ago and that expected results for the full year are still within the range of market expectations. Last month, the firm said that, while it was seeing a shift toward more publicly-financed projects, it was experiencing little sign of any benefit from the fiscal stimulus measures implemented by various governments. DS Smith saw profits slump in the year as the packaging firm said its results were "significantly affected" by an external environment that worsened as the year progressed. All its business segments felt the impact of lower demand for their products and services as a result of the general contraction in economic activity. This weakening of demand gathered pace in the second half. Pre-tax profit slumped 84.6% to £16.8m on revenue that rose 7.1% to £2,106m. The group has halved its total dividends to 4.4p.Green energy support services firm Eaga expects full year results to be in line with forecasts and said its prospects for future growth and continued diversification remain encouraging. "We see significant potential for the further development of both established and new partnerships with central and local government, utility companies and other strategic partners, and the board looks forward with confidence to the year ahead," said chief executive Drew Johnson.