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Corporate Diary: May 12 – 16
Last updated May 11 2008
Diary commentary from FT reporters; data, unless otherwise stated, from Thomson Financial. Company announcements, collated by Thomson StreetEvents, are of information publicly available before last week

MAY 12
●
Profits have been boosted by the rise in the oil price although controls on petrol and diesel prices in Brazil have curbed the increase.
Petrobras is now the second biggest oil company in the Americas by market capitalisation, behind ExxonMobil but ahead of Chevron.
Much of the interest in the company has been in the vast potential of its oil find in the deep waters off Brazil’s coast but Petrobras is not expected to give much further detail today as it is still waiting for important well results to be analysed.
●
Analysts at Morgan Stanley expect HSBC to set aside $15bn (£7.7bn) this year owing to the fall in US house prices. They also predict that provisions will not peak until 2009. The continued losses in the US are likely to contrast with HSBC’s continued strong performance in Asia, where its operations are still booming.
Earnings
Diploma H1, FY estimate 15.42p (13.16p)
Hiscox H1, FY estimate 37.01p (45.82p)
HSBC Q1 $0.95 (-)
MBIA Q1 -$0.19 ($1.48)
Mylan Laboratories Q1 $0.07 ($0.46)
Petrobras Q1 R$- (R$471.00)
RM H1, FY estimate 13.24p (11.66p)
Robert Wiseman Dairies FY 34.55p (32.33p)
Southern Cross Healthcare H1, FY estimate 25.48p (18.66p)
Sprint Nextel Q1 $0.02 ($0.18)
Annual meetings
Centrica
Zetex
Shareholder meetings
International Paper
Tomkins

MAY 13
● Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of
Nissan remains one of the global car industry’s most profitable producers but has suffered over the past year in North America, its biggest overseas market, from faltering demand for the pick-up trucks and other large vehicles in its line-up that – like those of its competitors – are falling out of favour among Americans. As with its competitors, it is also struggling with falling demand in Japan.
Investors will be listening for new guidance on
Mr Ghosn’s strategy for
the company, whose
French alliance partner, Renault, is meeting its profitability targets as it rolls out new vehicles and pushes further into emerging markets.
●
But the main focus of the day will be on any possible update to the protracted bidding battle for the company.
Last Thursday, Enodis accepted a 282p-a-share takeover offer from
Enodis shares closed up 44¾p at 288¼p last Thursday, above the 282p offer from ITW – suggesting traders believed that the bidding battle may not yet be over.
Earnings
Applied Materials Q2 $0.22 ($0.34)
Babcock International FY 32.68p (23.33p)
Electronic Arts Q4 $0.00 ($0.06)
Enodis H1, FY estimate 13.78p (12.03p)
Enterprise Inns H1, FY estimate 40.31p (39.63p)
European Capital Q1, FY estimate €1.20 (€0.68)
Invu FY 1.74p (2.01p)
Nissan Motor FY Y114.21 (Y112.33)
Premier Foods H1, FY estimate 17.78p (15.50p)
TeleCity Q1, FY estimate 5.04p (-4.67p)
TUI Travel H1, FY estimate 19.44p (-) Wal-Mart Stores
Q1 $0.75 ($0.68)
Whole Foods Market Q2 $0.30 ($0.32)
Annual meetings
Alliance & Leicester
F&C Asset Management
International Power
Next
Serco Group
Spirax-Sarco Engineering
The Keller Group
Travis Perkins
United Business Media
Shareholder meetings
ARM Holdings
Kraft Foods
Prudential

MAY 14
●
But analysts are feeling a little underwhelmed ahead of its preliminary results. Space growth plans are modest and the company has ruled out any radical changes to its property portfolio – in spite of shareholder Robert Tchenguiz’s wishes.
JPMorgan Cazenove says it will be watching closely for any sales slowdown – particularly in non-food areas. Underlying sales for the year to March 22 came in at 5.8 per cent, including petrol. Fourth quarter sales were up 4.1 per cent. Analysts are expecting profits of £483m against £380m last year on sales up 5.8 per cent to £19.2bn.
The City will also be watching what Sainsbury’s management says about its Qatari-based shareholders. The Qatar Investment Authority, which walked away from a bid approach late last year, is still sitting on a 25 per cent stake and is now free to make another approach under UK takeover rules.
Earnings
BNP Paribas Q1 €2.05 (€2.73)
Compass Group H1, FY estimate 19.79p (15.04p)
Deere & Company Q2 $1.75 ($1.36)
FirstGroup FY 40.97p (33.70p)
Freddie Mac Q1 -$0.92 (-$0.46)
J Sainsbury FY 19.13p (14.72p)
Johnston Press H1, FY estimate 30.78p (34.20p)
Land Securities Group FY 75.97p (70.48p)
ThyssenKrupp Q2 €1.31 (€0.45)
Trading and sales updates
DSG International
Annual meetings
Amec
BG Group
Bunzl
Int’l Personal Finance
Interserve
Legal & General
LogicaCMG
Rentokil Initial
SIG
Royal Bank of Scotland Tullow Oil
Unilever
Shareholder meetings
Arbuthnot Banking
Invesco
Venture Production
Shareholder meetings
Comcast

MAY 15
●
Earnings
3i FY 159.44p (253.53p)
BT Q4 or FY, FY estimate 23.38p (22.70p)
Euromoney Inst’l Investor H1, FY estimate 35.27p (33.57p)
Findel FY 51.30p (50.17p)
Hewlett-Packard Q2 $0.84 ($0.70)
Invensys Q4 4.92p (-)
Investec FY 55.84p (53.34p)
Luminar Group Holdings FY 39.28p (31.79p)
National Grid FY 52.96p (48.11p)
SABMiller FY $1.33 ($1.20)
Vedanta Resources FY 154.44p (165.43p)
Trading and sales updates
Barclays Bank
Cookson
Tullett Prebon
Annual meetings
Axis-Shield
Barr Pharmaceuticals
Brit Insurance Holdings
Inchcape
Informa
ITV
Marshalls
Prudential
TeleCity
Tullett Prebon
William Hill
Shareholder meetings
Balfour Beatty
CSR
Dow Chemical Company
GCap Media
IntercontinentalExchange
Marsh & McLennan
NYSE Euronext
Pulte Homes
Tiffany & Co

MAY 16
Earnings
Avis Europe H1, FY estimate 2.39p (2.10p)
British Airways Q4, FY estimate 53.92p (38.12p)
Capital & Regional H1, FY estimate 41.21p (34.03p)
Holidaybreak H1, FY estimate 57.58p (54.36p)
Annual meetings
BP
Charter
Computacenter
E-Trade
Galiform
KBC Adv’d Technologies
Ladbrokes
Premier Foods
Shareholder meetings
Aon
OmnicomSMG
Results forecasts, from Thomson I/B/E/S, are for fully diluted, post-tax EPS in local currency for the stated fiscal period. The comparable period of the previous year is bracketed. Non-UK reporting periods are broken by quarter: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. UK periods are designated: Q1, H1 (first half), Q3 and FY (full year). Thomson Financial calculates mean earnings estimates based on a majority policy where the accounting basis used for each company estimate is that used by the majority of contributing analysts






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