Tuesday preview: Marks & Spencer, De La Rue, C&C

24th May 2010 15:42

Tuesday's preliminary results from retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) will be the last under the chairmanship of Sir Stuart Rose, and after a turbulent six-year spell at the helm of the company - first as chief executive - it looks likely he will leave the company while it is on a growth trend.M&S has already indicated that full year pre-tax profit will be in the range of £620m to £630m but the market is expecting the company to squeeze out a little bit extra, to the tune of two or three million. That would represent an improvement on last year's £604.4m. Sales are tipped to rise £9.29bn from £9.06bn. Charles Stanley thinks that the iconic UK company's overseas operations will have generally put in a good shift, though Ireland and Greece may have been slowed by difficult economic conditions in those countries. "India and China have been identified as key markets for future expansion, but international strategy remains slightly unclear. We would expect this to be an area to be clarified by [new chief executive] Bolland in his strategic review in November," Charles Stanley analyst Sam Hart sates.Bank note printer De La Rue has been rolling in money since it sold its 20% stake in UK lottery operator Camelot Group for £78m in late March, which should raise hopes that the company will continue with its generous dividend policy. The market is predicting a full year dividend of 41.89p, which would put the shares on a yield of around 4.7%.Pre-tax profit is predicted to move back above the £100m mark at £101.85m, up from £96.1m last year. Turnover is tipped to rise to £538.6m from £502.4m.The results come a day after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne outlined plans for £6.25bn of spending cuts and it has been suggested that De La Rue may be one of the companies to suffer from spending cuts over the next few years. The company seemed confident of the outcome for the current financial year back in March though it did warn that "the unusually strong margin mix in Currency will not be repeated," though this would be offset by improvements elsewhere. It seems a long while since Magners Irish cider maker C&C was riding high on the back of the cider over ice craze. Once bigger operators in the brewing world moved to attack the company's market the days of rapid growth quickly ended and cider volumes went severely ex-growth in fiscal 2009. C&C expects to report a modest year-on-year decline in cider volumes for fiscal, compared with a volume decline of over 14% in the previous financial year. INTERIMS Education Development International, Greencore Group, Renew Holdings, Romag Holdings, Victrex INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS ABC Consumer Confidence (US) (22:00) Consumer Confidence (EU) (10:00) Consumer Confidence (US) (15:00) House Price Index (US) (15:00) Industrial New Orders (EU) (10:00) GMS Alphameric, Cleardebt Group FINALS BSS Group, C&C Group, Clyde Process Solutions, De La Rue, Entertainment One (DI), Homeserve, HSBC Infrastructure Company Ltd., KCOM Group, Marks & Spencer Group, Pennon Group, Telecom Plus EGMS Discovery Metals (CDI), Glanbia, Minera IRL AGMS 21st Century Technology, Clipper Windpower (Reg S), Clipper Windpower (Reg S), Dillistone, Downing Protected VCT IX, Downing Protected VCT IX 'A' Shares, Downing Protected VCT VIII, Downing Protected VCT VIII 'A' Shares, DRS Data, Glanbia, Judges Scientific, Judges Scientific, KazMunaiGaz GDR (Reg S), KEFI Minerals, Metalrax Group, Metalrax Group, Plaza Centers, Sinosoft Technology, Surgical Innovations, Surgical Innovations UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS GDP (output, income & expenditure) (09:30) Index of Services (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Brady, Charles Taylor, Core VCT IV, Core VCT V