Yahoo Finance Week ahead in business and finance
Today
No FTSE 350 companies reporting.
Economics: New home sales (US)
Tomorrow
Beleaguered retailer Carpetright is expected to swing to a loss in its full-year figures amid concerns that the flooring business could become another victim of the high street slump. The struggling company secured a £60m lifeline earlier this month after tapping investors in a fundraise. Carpetright sold the new equity at 28p per share, its valuation having dropped 80pc in 2018.
The firm unveiled plans in April to close 81 stores through a company voluntary arrangement, putting some 300 jobs at risk.
It will use the cash injection to fund its costly overhaul plans, including £6m for a restructuring, £12.5m to pay off an unsecured loan from a shareholder and £33m for investment to kickstart its turnaround.
City analysts are forecasting the company to suffer a £1.9m loss, compared to a £14.4m profit last year.
Full-year results: Carpetright
Interim results: Carnival
Trading statement: Petrofac
AGM: Capita
Economics: CBI distributive trades survey (UK), finance loans for
housing (UK)
Wednesday
Whitbread’s plan to demerge its Costa Coffee chain will be back under the spotlight and City analysts have warned investors to brace for a weak first quarter of trading from the Premier Inn owner.
More details on the split could support its shares, which have drifted away from a two-year high, but analysts have predicted that trading will suffer under the weight of the declining UK hotels market.
Expectations at its Costa division will be higher with “new formats like drive-thrus and Costa Express machines helping boost revenue growth”, Nicholas Hyett at Hargreaves Lansdown explained.
“Steady profitable growth at Premier Inn would be more than enough to keep investors happy.”
Trading statement: Bunzl, Whitbread
Economics: Durable goods orders (US), pending home sales (US)
Thursday
City analysts believe pub chain Greene King will be the UK food and drink sector’s big winner from the World Cup as it attempts to brush aside the difficult trading conditions blowing Britain’s boozers off course.
Greene King “makes a significant feature of games across the majority of its managed pub estate” and should be the “biggest beneficiary” from the month-long tournament, Berenberg predicted.
It explained that the effect of the World Cup on “100pc football-orientated” pubs will be equivalent to “three extra trading days” in a quarter, a 3pc to 4pc like-for-like sales boost.
Full-year results: BCA Marketplace, Greene King, Stagecoach
Trading statement: Hunting, Tullow Oil, Wood Group
AGM: 3i Group, JD Sports, NMC Health
Economics: GDP growth first quarter final estimate (US), consumer confidence (EU)
Friday
The boardroom battle at Russian miner Petropavlovsk will come to a head at its AGM this week with a vote threatening to topple its chief executive deemed too close to call.
Top shareholder Kenes Rakishev last week urged fellow investors to back the plot to oust the current board.
Two mystery shareholders, CABS Platform and Slevin, which hold a 9.1pc stake, want its new boss Roman Deniskin to be replaced by its former chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy, arguing that the former lacks the experience to spreadhead a recovery.
Explaining CABS’s investment, an adviser for the investor argued that Petropavlovsk is the “most undervalued company in the gold market”. A spokesman for Petropavlovsk said CABS and Slevin winning the backing of Mr Rakishev “intensifies the board’s suspicion” that the three investors are “trying to acquire control ... by stealth”.
Trading statement: Reach, Serco
AGM: Petropavlovsk
Economics: GfK consumer confidence (UK), GDP growth first quarter final estimate (UK), lending data (UK), CPI (EU)
