Thursday preview: Mitchells & Butlers, British Land, Cable & Wireless

20th May 2009 15:31

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers interim results are expected to show a sharp fall, with broker KBC Peel Hunt going for pre-tax profit of £35m, down 42% from last year's interim figure. KBC said the company is likely to attribute the decline to expiring food and energy contracts. Evolution Securities, meanwhile, expects the pub group to report significant gains in market share.If last week's results from fellow property company Land Securities are any guide, British Land shareholders must be awaiting the year-end trading update with some trepidation. LandSecs said its net asset value (NAV) per share slumped by two-thirds in 2008, as its property portfolio lost £4.7bn in value. British Land's results should look all right, but only in comparison with Land Securities. At the nine-months stage British Land's portfolio valuation was down by 21.7% and its NAV per share was down 31%. The portfolio includes the prestigious Broadgate complex in London.British Land recently raised £767m to bolster its balance sheet and provide some firepower for bargain hunting. The most recent quarterly survey from the Investment Property Forum suggested that the sector won't recover until 2011 at the earliest so the company could have a long wait before it gets to use that cash bargain hunting at the bottom of the market. Market consensus is for a full-year loss of £271m on gross rental income of £573m. Results from telecom group Cable & Wireless, meanwhile, should be flattered by comparisons with BT, which has been underperforming in C&W's key market, providing IT services for corporate customers. Cable & Wireless said in February it was on track to achieve its guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of at least £780m for the year ending 31 March 2009, assuming an average exchange rate for the year of $1.88 to £1.00. That exchange rate assumption is starting to look a little pessimistic, however; C&W's revenues will get a sizeable benefit from sterling's weakness against the dollar. The market is going for pre-tax profits of £410m on revenue of £3,736m. Utility company Scottish & Southern Energy has seen its share price gather momentum in the last month after an indifferent first quarter when, in keeping with most utilities, it was cold shouldered by fund managers anxious to up their exposure to recovering cyclical stocks. As an income stock, shareholders will probably be focused on the divi, which is expected to be hiked by about 10% to 66p. Pre-tax profit is forecast to be £1,181m on revenue of £17,089m.INTERIMS Mitchells & Butlers, Western & Oriental INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30) Leading Indicators (US) (15:00) Philadelphia Fed Index (US) (15:00) Bank of Japan MPC Meeting (JPN)FINALS British Land Co, Cable & Wireless, Scottish & Southern Energy AGMS Alliance Pharma, ANT, Autoclenz, Billington Holdings, Cenkos Securities, Central Rand Gold, Chaucer Holdings, ClearSpeed Technology, Cineworld, Edinburgh US Tracker Trust, Friends Provident, Genetix Group, Guinness Peat Group, Guinness Peat Group, Henry Boot, Hydro International, International Power, John Menzies, Matrix Income & Growth 4 VCT, MCB Finance Group, MDY Healthcare, Morson Group, Oxford Advanced Surfaces Group, Roc Oil Company, Travis Perkins, TyraTech, UTV Media, Xchanging UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Internet Retail Sales (09:30) Public Sector Finances (09:30) Retail Sales (09:30) M4 Money Supply (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Core VCT IV, Core VCT V, Nichols, Tullett Prebon, Tullow Oil, United Business Media, Zotefoams QUARTERLY RESULTS British Land Co