Thursday preview: TUI Travel, Marston's, Kingfisher

1st Dec 2010 16:30

The market did not much warm to Thomas Cook's results on Wednesday so at least the bar has been lowered for package tour rival TUI Travel on Thursday.Earlier this week the company named commercial director William Waggott as its new finance chief. He will replace Paul Bowtell, who is carrying the can for his part in the fiasco that forced the company to restate results for the 2008/09 and take an extra £88m charge.Last month, TUI had to restate results for 2008/09 and take an extra charge linked to the integration of IT systems in its UK mainstream business following the First Choice deal. That took total write-downs to £117m as £29m of them had already been flagged when the company published third quarter results in August.Market consensus is for profit before tax of £268m on revenue of £13.35bn. Brewer and pubs group Marston's took a gamble a while back, asking shareholders to support a rights issue to fund the construction of a number of food-led new pubs, and it is getting to the stage where the first inklings of whether the management's strategy is paying dividends.KBC Peel Hunt said "the key features of this announcement are likely to be the continuing success of the twin strategies of the managed new build project, which is exceeding its hurdle rates, and tenanted conversion to the successful Retail Agreement trading model. This should confirm our confidence that earnings will be in sustainable double-digit growth for fiscal 2011."Panmure Gordon is predicting profit before tax of £73.3m, bang in line with market consensus, and earnings per share (EPS) of 9.8p. "The new build managed pub programme remains on track with 15 pubs opened during the year, which are delivering revenue and profit ahead of the group's targets. 20 new managed pubs are anticipated to open during fiscal 2011 and 25 during fiscal 2012," Panmure Gordon said. "104 leased and tenanted pubs are now let under the group's Retail Agreement, with plans for a further 500 pubs to move on to the Retail Agreement over the next three years. Given the recent encouraging updates from the peer group we expect positive news on current trading," the broker added.DIY retailer Kingfisher issues a third quarter update in which Investec expects it to unveil retail profits of £255m.Singer Capital Markets, meanwhile, highlights the increasing importance of the TradePoint business which, as the name suggests, serves the trade market rather than the retail customer. The unit should start to make a positive contribution to profits, the broker believes, and could generate ""a swing factor of almost 3%."On the economic front, the release of the construction purchasing managers index for November is likely to remain above the 50.0 level which indicates expansion, but is expected to dip to around 51.0 from 51.6 in October. INTERIMSAPI Group, Consort Medical, Mountview EstateINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSUnemployment Rate [ILO] (FRA) (06:30) PMI Construction (GER) (08:55)PMI Construction (EU) (09:00)GDP (1st release) (EU) (10:00)Household Consumption (EU) (10:00)Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)FINALSBritvic, Local Shopping REIT, Marston's, OMG, Redhall Group, TUI TravelSPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Inv TrustAGMSAI Claims Solutions, Avation, Black Sea Property Fund Ltd., Capital Lease Aviation, Frontera Resources Corp., GETECH Group, Norseman Gold, Trading EmissionsTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSKingfisherUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Construction (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Inv Trust