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Tuesday preview: InterContinental, International Power, UK trade
Thu, 09 Feb, 2012
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Tuesday preview: InterContinental, International Power, UK trade
Mon, 9 Aug 2010, 17:07:00
The hotel trade is showing signs of recovering from the effects of the recession, and not just at the budget end of the market, and so results from
InterContinental Hotels
should show the Holiday Inn owner's fortunes on an upward trend. The group's US peers have all topped market expectations with their second quarter earnings recently, which has set the bar a little higher for InterContinental. The company should post half year revenue of $775m, up from $726m, underlying earnings of $210m, up from $179m, and pre-tax profits of $180m up from $151m according to Charles Stanley. "Revenue per available room (RevPAR) recovery has been strongest in 'upscale' brands, but is increasingly spreading to 'midscale' brands," notes Charles Stanley analyst Sam Hart. By region, Charles Stanley forecast the Americas' RevPAR to be up by 5%, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to be up 4% year on year and Asia Pacific to rise 12%. Interim results from power generator
International Power
have been nicely timed with the market waiting with breath abated for news of its multi-billion pound merger with French electricity giant GDF Suez. Negotiations over the last few details were underway over the weekend and a formal announcement is expected alongside Tuesday's results. Reports said there are still some wrinkles to sort out but the basic framework has been agreed. The deal will see the French state-owned GDF take a majority stake in the enlarged group, possibly as much as two-thirds. The remainder of the shares will be listed in London. Services, maintenance and building group
Interserve
is one of many companies that might be expected to be worried by the government's planned spending cuts, though the company has indicated that profits will be weighted towards the second half of the year, despite the uncertainty over public sector contracts. "All this points to an uninspiring H1 outcome with the focus, more than usual, on the outlook statement," warns Panmure Gordon. The broker is forecasting first half profit before tax of £25m, down from £39.3m last year. It's a fairly busy day on the economics front, not least on the other side of the pond where the
US Federal Reserve will be announcing its interim rate decision
. The Fed is expected to keep its interest rate unchanged but there is an expectation in some quarters that the central bank will announce additional measures to rev up the economy. Back in the UK, the
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
(RICS) House Price Balance is due out overnight with the balance of surveyors reporting that house prices increased over those that reported a decrease in the three months to July expected to ease to +4% from +9% last month. Meanwhile, the
Department for Communities and Local Government
(DCLG) releases its house price data for June. This is regarded as a lagging indicator as the information is collected when the mortgage is completed, not when the sale is first agreed. Expectations are for the year on year increase to have slowed to 9.8% in June from 11% in July. The
British Retail Consortium
(BRC) brings out its retail sales monitor for July and with the weather having been generally fine total retail sales should be up year on year with forecasting unit I H S Global Insight going for a rise of 3.7%, or 1.5% on a like for like basis. That compares to gains of 3.4% and 1.2% respectively in June. "Even if the BRC July survey does show decent growth in retail sales, the suspicion remains that consumers are likely to find life hard and will be constrained in their spending," opined Dr. Howard Archer, managing director of I H S Global Insight. The
UK total trade deficit
has not narrowed as swiftly as might be expected given sterling's weakness, but it is expected to have headed in the right direction in June to about £3.5bn from May's £3.8bn; the May figure was a 22-month high. The visible trade deficit is forecast to have diminished to £7.6bn from £8.1bn in May. Tuesday August 10 INTERIMS BATM Advanced, European Goldfields Limited, First Quantum Minerals, Greggs, InterContinental Hotels Group, International Power, Interserve, Mondi, Share Plc INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Pressure Technologies INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS ABC Consumer Confidence (US) (22:00) Consumer Price Index(GER) (07:00) FOMC Interest Rate (US) (19:15) Wholesales Inventories (US) (15:00) Non-Farm Productivity (US) (13.30) Manufacturing Output (FRA) (7.45) Industrial Production (FRA) 07:45) Bank of Japan Target Rate Machine Tool Orders (JPN) Q2 European Goldfields Limited, First Quantum Minerals Q3 TUI Travel FINALS NWF Group IMSS TUI Travel EGMS Invista Foundation Property Trust AGMS RedHot Media International UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Balance of Trade (09:30) BRC Sales Monitor (11:00) RICS House Price Balance (0.01) DCLG UK House Prices (y/y) (9.30)
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