Tuesday preview: Drax, Croda, Morgan Sindall

22nd Feb 2010 17:20

Drax, operator of the UK's largest coal-fired power station, is set to report a sharp drop in full year pre-tax profits on Tuesday, with the investment analyst community expecting a figure of around £266.1m, compared to £442.5m in 2008. Revenue is expected to ease to £1,356.0m from £1,752.8m.Full year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are tipped to be around £341m, with earnings underpinned by a strong forward contracted position. The company announced last year that it would be rebasing its dividend, hence expectations of a full year dividend of around 14.21p, down from 43.3p last year, when the company also paid a special dividend of 9.7p. The dividend was chopped to finance the company's investment in the proposed expansion of its use of biomass materials as an alternative to coal, though last week the company's chief executive, Dorothy Thomson, said the government's subsidy for using biomass materials was not large enough to make it competitive with coal, and the company was therefore suspending plans to burn biomass materials.Analysts will be looking for information on the company's forward hedging positions. 'The outlook for Drax's 2011E [2011 estimated] and 2012E [2012 estimated] earnings is not so great, given the plant is less well-hedged and current forward clean dark spreads only just allow Drax to break even at the EBITDA level,' UBS suggests. 'Lower CO2 permit prices and low liquidity in forward power contracts compound the difficulties, in our view,' the Swiss bank added.Diversified regeneration and construction firm Morgan Sindall reported a softening in the order book back in December, though it said it was still on track to meet expectations for the full year. Those expectations are for pre-tax profits of £49.33m on revenue of £2,349.7m, compared to pre-tax profit the year before of £62.3m on revenue of £2,548.1m.The current state of the order book is likely to be key to sentiment while the firm's views on the outlook for public sector spending will be closely analysed. Yorkshire-based speciality chemicals firm Croda Group enjoyed record sales and profits in the third quarter and with margins improving in the Industrial Specialities division the fourth quarter is expected to have seen a strong performance too.The market is expecting pre-tax profit to ease to £95.9m from £98.4m in 2008. Sales are seen sliding to £918.4m from £956.4m. 'Q3 [third quarter] net debt emerged below expectations at £332m and a similar outturn is expected for 2009,' broker Charles Stanley suggests. Veterinary-focused drug group Dechra Pharmaceuticals issues interim results. Panmure Gordon is predicting profit before tax of £13.5m on revenues of £184.5m. The company said back in January that it was seeing signs of volume growth returning to the market.Car dealer Pendragon has seen its share price fall by about a third in the last six months but long term holders are still sitting on a 600% gain over the last year. After posting a pre-tax loss of £200.6m in 2008 (underlying loss excluding exceptional items was £29.6m) the group is expected to have returned to profit in 2009, with the market pencilling in a figure of £7.65m on revenue of £2,989.4m.The fourth quarter is likely to have been strong but with the car scrappage scheme set to run out soon comments on the trading outlook are expected to be cautious.The company secured a refinancing in May on terms that were adjudged to have been favourable to the banks, so the debt situation will be of interest. Net debt is expected to have fallen to just under £320m from £357.3m at the beginning of 2009.After a quiet Monday on the economic news front economists will be paying attention again Tuesday as the British Bankers' Association (BBA) releases data for mortgage approvals for house purchases in January. The number of approvals is expected to slip back from the 26-month high of 45,897 in November to around 43,000, due in part to the harsh weather conditions at the start of the year. INTERIMSDechra Pharmaceuticals, MinervaINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSConsumer Confidence (EU) (10:00)Consumer Confidence (US) (15:00)Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (US) (15:00)Consumer Prices Index (FRA) (07:45)Consumer Spending (FRA) IFO Business Climate, Current Assessment and Expectations (GER) (09:00)UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBBA Loans for House Purchases (09:30)Q4PearsonFINALSBrammer, Croda International, Dragon Oil, Drax Group, Kerry Group 'A', Mondi, Morgan Sindall, Pendragon, SpectrisAGMSBankers Inv Trust, BlackRock New Energy Technology Inv Trust, Foresight 2 VCTTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSKingdom Hotel Investments GDS