London pre-open: Sharp losses in store

21st May 2009 07:42

London is expected to start about 50 points lower following losses on Wall Street last night. Pub group Mitchells & Butlers has parted company with chief executive Tim Clarke after reporting a 48% slump in half year pre-tax profit. Profit before tax and exceptional items for the 28 weeks ended 11 April tumbled to £44m from £84m a year ago on revenue up nearly 3% to £1.02bn. Drink sales enjoyed like for like growth of 1.7%, while like-for-like food sales were up 2.5%. Trading since the AGM 16 weeks ago has been "robust", with like for like sales up 1.5% in the period to 16 May. The gain for the 33 weeks is 1.2%.Full-year profit from Cable & Wireless was roughly in line with expectations, but the telecom group forecasts EBITDA of more than £1bn for the current year. Profit before tax for the 12 months ended 31 March rose to £422m from £308m a year ago, although exceptional items of £189m mean the total figure was down to £233m from £267m. Revenue grew by 16% to £3.6bn. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before exceptionals rose 36% to £822m, better than the £780m predicted. It forecasts EBITDA of about £1.025bn for 2009/10. The annual dividend goes up 13%.British Land reported a 28% drop in its portfolio valuation in eth year to the end of March, with net asset value down 64% to 398p. Underlying pre-tax profit fell to £268m from £284m.Utility company Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) has hiked its final dividend by 9% to 46.2p and said it plans an increase of at least 4% more than inflation for 2009/10. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose by 2% to £1,253.7m in the year ended 31 March on revenue of £25,424m. The group said it is aiming to deliver a moderate increase in pre-tax profit in 2009/10. In a separate statement, SSE said it has reached three significant milestones in the development of its electricity generation portfolio.Sports shop chain JJB Sports fell heavily into losses in the year to 25 January after an extremely difficult period for the group that was compounded by the economic downturn. Pre-tax losses totalled £189.2m, compared with a profit of £10.8m the previous year, as revenues slipped to £718.3m from £811.8m. JJB said its poor performance was due largely to a decision to buy the Original Shoe Company and Qubefootwear to form a 'Lifestyle' division. The two divisions were put into administration in February. Revenue was down 42.1% in the 16 weeks to 17 May.Newspaper publisher Daily Mail and General Trust saw profits fall by nearly half after feeling the impact of a severe advertising downturn. The group, which publishes the Daily Mail as well as local papers and business titles, said pre-tax profits in the six months to March 29 fell to £77m from £144m over the same period the previous year as revenues fell to £1.08bn from £1.168bn. Chief executive Martin Morgan said actions to defend profitability would help to offset continued weak demand. He also pointed out that the company's business-to-business publishing operations had been resilient. The company said advertising conditions improved in April and May.