Thursday preview: Debenhams, Greene King

30th Jun 2010 16:51

Department store Debenhams issues an interim management statement which may include some commentary on the Budget, specifically the increase in VAT to 20% due to come into effect on 4 January.Investment analysts have been getting excited about the group's Danish acquisition Danish acquisition Magasin du Nord.While it represents less than 10% of the total group's sales, Magasin du Nord's gross margin is fully 1,000 basis points adrift from Debenhams core business, broker KBC Peel Hunt notes, offering plenty of opportunity for Debenhams to start sweating its assets.Another broker in the Debenhams fan club is finnCap, which believes that "department stores enjoy economies of scale and scope that enable them to withstand the pressure on UK high street retailing from a variety of forces. The wide assortment provides an excellent base on which to build a broad-based online business," the broker claimed back in April after Debenhams' interim results.Meanwhile, the view of Debenhams' management at the time of the interim results was that the trading environment would be broadly neutral for the company in the second half of its trading year.Britain's biggest real ale brewer Greene King will be mourning the abject performance of the England team in the World Cup as the group's many pubs are likely to be less crowded for the remainder of the competition now the team has been eliminated, though the Argentina-Germany game could possibly attract a lot of England fans hoping both teams somehow lose.The market is expecting full year pre-tax profits of £123.6m from Greene King on sales of £974m. The group seems keen to retain funds to buy up pubs from debt-laden competitors at fire-sale prices, so it is unlikely there will be any excitement on the dividend front, with an unchanged full year dividend of 21p on the cards.As with Debenhams, the company may have something to say about the VAT changes in the recent emergency Budget and whether it will be able to pass the price increases on to customers. "Greene King has made public statements about being confident about handling the outcome of the forthcoming budget, based on the momentum of the divisional performances as well as its ability, with cash in the bank, to be able to take advantage of cheap but good quality assets that may come on to the market from distressed sellers," said Deutsche Bank analyst Geoff Collyer.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Bellway INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Auto Sales (US) (15:00) Construction Spending (US) (15:00) Continuing Claims (US) (13:30) Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30) ISM Manufacturing (US) (15:00) ISM Prices Paid (US) (15:00) Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00) PMI Manufacturing (EU) (09:00) PMI Manufacturing (GER) (08:55) PMI Manufacturing (FRA) (08:50) Tankan Large Manufacturers Index (JPN) Tankan Large Manufacturers Outlook (JPN) GMS China Gateway International, Throgmorton Trust FINALS Cyril Sweett, GEONG International, Greene King ANNUAL REPORT Polar Capital Holdings EGMS Octopus AIM VCT AGMS Aberdeen New Thai Inv Trust, Blue Planet European Financials Inv Trust, Boussard & Gavaudan Holding Ltd. EUR Shares, Boussard & Gavaudan Holding Ltd. GBP Shares, Clyde Process Solutions, Lipoxen, Northern 3 VCT, UK Select Trust Ltd. TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Debenhams, John Wood Group UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS PMI Manufacturing (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Aegis Group, Amec, Bioquell, Bloomsbury Publishing, Bunzl, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company SA, Headlam Group, Next, Rolls-Royce Group, Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust, Tawa