Thursday preview: Man Group, United Utilities, Booker

27th May 2009 18:09

Hedge fund manager Man Group will probably be glad to have seen the back of its last financial year, which Peter Clarke, its chief executive, described as "a very difficult year for global markets."Broker Charles Stanley is forecasting a pre-tax profit of $2,079m for the year to end-March. "As usual, when the results come out, we shall be looking closely at the sales, redemption and the pipeline figures to assess the strength/weakness of the new business trends," said Charfles Stanley analyst Nic Clarke.United Utilities is expected to announce full-year pre-tax profit of £510.4m on turnover of £2,474m. The stock is a favourite of income investors and even with the previously indicated cut in the full-year dividend to just under 33p, it is yielding around 6%.Credit Suisse believes the dividend is sustainable, and reckons the yield "could help to justify a higher valuation going into the next price review."Broker Charles Stanley, which is bearish on the stock, does not think the OfWat regulatory review will be kind to United Utilities (UU), however. "The review is generally expected to be tough and UU has demonstrated below average results in terms of regulatory performance indicators and lags behind peers in realising operating and capital maintenance efficiencies," the broker said. Wholesaler Booker's trading update at the beginning of April was upbeat and Thursday's announcement of full-year results is expected to keep the fell good factor going.The recent clement weather and this year's late Easter should have given a boost to current trading, giving the company a chance of matching in the first quarter of the current year the 6.4% growth in like-for-like sales it achieved in the preceding quarter. Market consensus for fiscal 2008/9 is for pre-tax profit of £42.7m on sales of £3,156m.INTERIMSBrewin Dolphin, Invista European Real Estate TrustFINALSBooker Group, Hogg Robinson, HSBC Infrastructure Company Ltd., Man Group, PayPoint, Scapa Group, Tate & Lyle, United Utilities, Vertu Motors, Young & Co's Brewery 'A'AGMSAlbion Development VCT, Bioquell, Engel East Europe N.V., Hilton Food Group, Horizonte Minerals, InterQuest, Mallett, Nanette Real Estate, North Midland Construction, Northern Petroleum, ScisysFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE888 Holdings, Aegis Group, Collins Stewart, F&C Asset Management, GlobeOp Financial Services, Henry Boot, Hochschild Mining, Morson Group, Reckitt Benckiser Group, RPS Group, Venture ProductionUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSCBI Quarterly Distributive Trades Survey (11:00)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSDurable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)Weekly Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)New Home Sales (US) (15:00)Unemployment (GER) (08:55)Business Climate Indicator (EC) (10:00)Consumer Confidence Indicator (EC) (10:00)Industrial Confidence Indicator (EC) (10:00)Economic Confidence (EC) (10:00)Retail Sales (JPN)