Diary commentary from FT reporters; data and company announcements, unless otherwise stated, from Thomson Reuters. Company announcements are of information publicly available before last week

FEBRUARY 13

Earnings
Anglo American Platinum FY R20.04 (19.29)
Deutsche Börse FY €4.48 (€3.87)
L’Oréal FY €4.26 (€4.01)
Olympus Q3 Y31.50 (Y7.60)

FEBRUARY 14

● Heinrich Hiesinger, the chief executive of ThyssenKrupp, does not waste time, writes Chris Bryant.

Since taking the reins of the German steel and engineering conglomerate last year, he has agreed to part with assets comprising about €8bn in revenues, including Inoxum, the stainless steel unit.

ThyssenKrupp wants to cut its €3.6bn net debt and pursue investments in less cyclical technology. But, unfortunately for Mr Hiesinger, the rewards will not become visible just yet.

Instead, legacy problems related to a troublesome steel plant in Brazil, coupled with weakness in steel demand and pricing, are set to depress earnings in the first quarter.

ThyssenKrupp has declined to provide full-year guidance but has indicated that earnings before interest and taxation in the first quarter will be “significantly lower” than the €273m achieved in the same period last year.

“It should be no surprise that the fiscal first quarter has been very challenging for all European steelmakers given the macro uncertainty that has prevailed,” Neil Sampat at Nomura told clients.

Analysts remain hopeful, however, that relative stability in ThyssenKrupp’s elevator, plant technology and components units will help offset some of the decline in materials.

For Mr Hiesinger, the second half of the fiscal year, when the Brazilian steel mill is set to become fully operational and efficient, cannot come soon enough.

● Yell’s interim statement on its third quarter and nine-month performance will have analysts studying its earnings hard because a covenant test on its substantial debt pile looms at the end of March, writes Ben Fenton.

Deutsche Bank analysts forecast that the directories company will have earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £331m for the three quarters to December 31.

That would put Yell in line for full-year ebitda of about £441m, Deutsche Bank forecasts. The last figure for net debt was £2.63bn, giving a multiple of 5.96 times ebitda, using the analysts’ numbers. At the end of last year, Yell won agreement to extend its covenants for the March 31 test from 5.72 times ebitda to 6.25 times.

But there have been changes in the debt level, which is now expected to be slightly below £2.6bn, so there should still be headroom for Yell unless earnings figures disappoint.

Analysts see the digital revenues for the company, its main hope for growth, rising 8 per cent but not enough to offset an 18-19 per cent forecast fall in print sales.

Earnings
Banco do Brasil Q4 R0.88 (R1.36)
Man FY €6.88 (€3.38)
ThyssenKrupp Q3 -€0.03 (€0.31)
Yell Group Q3 1.40p (1.35p)

FEBRUARY 15

● When BNP Paribas and Société Générale report full-year results, attention will focus on how fast they are deleveraging, how they are managing their funding needs and how close they are to meeting the capital targets, writes Scheherazade Daneshkhu.

This is because French banks are shrinking their balance sheets in preparation for tougher capital rules that begin in June and to reduce their exposure to dollar financing following US money market funds’ cuts in placements with French banks.

Any comments on borrowing from the European Central Bank’s three-year facility will also be keenly awaited, as well as exposure to European sovereign debt and “haircuts” on Greek bonds.

SocGen, which reports on Thursday, has said it will scrap its dividend for 2011 but BNP Paribas is expected to lower its pay-out. BNP Paribas is expected to report net profits of €5.3bn-€6.3bn, while the equivalent figure for SocGen is put at €2.3bn-€2.5bn.

Earnings
BNP Paribas Q4 €1.13 (€1.30)
CBS Q4 $1.89 ($1.11)
Danone FY €2.91 (€2.71)
Domino’s Pizza FY 18.92p (16.75p)
Eni Q4 $0.45 ($0.48)
Heineken Q4 €1.41 (€1.08)
John Deere Q4 $7.80 ($6.63)

FEBRUARY 16

● General Motors is expected to report record 2011 results, lifted largely by rebounding sales in its home market, writes John Reed.

The US carmaker, which was restructured in bankruptcy in 2009, will report 2011 net income of about $8bn, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg. GM’s executives, led by Dan Akerson, will point to the bumper results as evidence of the completion of a successful turnround.

But the company is also expected to report a significant fourth-quarter loss in Europe, where its Opel division is suffering from a structurally declining market and weak pricing power for its cars. Mr Akerson and his colleagues will face questions over the deeper cost cuts they are now seeking at the chronically lossmaking division, which GM had hoped to return to break-even last year.

GM discloses its results on the same day as Renault and a day after PSA Peugeot Citroën report earnings also burdened by Europe’s woes.

● Like fighter jets in battle, defence companies are engaged in a fierce war of their own and BAE Systems, which reports full-year results, is no exception, writes Gill Plimmer.

Any sign of a game plan for snatching from France’s Dassault Aviation a $20bn contract to build 126 combat aircraft for the Indian government will be closely watched. India has granted Dassault preferred bidder status for its Rafale aircraft in preference to the Eurofighter Typhoon, whose developers include BAE, pan-European EADS and Italy’s Finmeccanica.

Negotiations to name a prime contractor may take at least a further six months, giving BAE time to manoeuvre, and it has signalled it would be willing to reduce its price.

Europe’s biggest defence contractor is already under pressure from government budget cuts and the continuing withdrawal from Afghanistan, so investors will be seeking clarity on BAE’s own cost-savings programme.

Consensus forecasts have pre-tax profits rising from £1.8bn in 2011 to £1.9bn in 2012 and earnings per share rising from 40.85p to 41.45p.

● Nestlé, the world’s biggest food group by revenues, reports full-year results, with consensus forecasts pointing to organic growth of 7 per cent and net profits up 11 per cent at SFr9.3bn, writes Louise Lucas.

The maker of Kit Kats and Nescafé coffee has won over investors with its consistently best-in-class performance but has recently been handicapped – at least in reporting terms – by reporting in the strong Swiss franc. Since last summer, the Swiss currency has been pegged to the euro and an estimated three-quarters of the group’s sales are generated outside the eurozone. The recent euro weakness has provided a slight fillip to numbers.

Nestlé also derives more than 40 per cent of revenues from emerging markets and investors will be looking for any signs of deceleration there following slightly softer growth in some markets at peer companies.

● Revenue growth from betting operator Ladbrokes’ machines are expected to be buoyant, to the point where it may have overtaken rival William Hill in this category as it reports full-year results, writes Roger Blitz.

The company’s weakness will be in over-the-counter sales, although chief executive Richard Glynn will be expected to offer at least some insights on the long-awaited online strategy.

The December 2010 racing cancellations should help the group’s comparisons in the fourth quarter, although there were some poor football results to absorb in October and November.

Shares have picked up in recent weeks, and management believes it is generating momentum despite the grim economic climate.

Earnings
African Barrick Gold FY $0.70 ($0.53)
BAE Systems FY 40.85p (42.10p)
General Motors Q4 $0.42 ($0.52)
Ladbrokes FY 14.30p (15.20p)
Molson Coors Brewing Q4 $0.71 ($0.66)
Nestlé FY SFr3.02 (SFr3.32)
PPR FY €8.09 (€7.35)
Pernod Ricard FY €4.54 (€4.12)
Reed Elsevier FY 45.70p (41.49p)
Renault FY €7.26 (€5.27)
Skywest Q4 -$0.35 ($0.49)
Société Générale FY €3.80 (€4.94)

FEBRUARY 17

● Anglo American, the diversified mining group with listings in London and Johannesburg, is expected to deliver operating profits of about $11bn on turnover set to rise beyond the $30bn mark when its reports annual figures – progress on both measures over the previous year, writes Michael Kavanagh.

Analysts suggest the company may reward investors with a generous dividend after a year in which it has profited from strong demand for iron ore, coal, nickel and copper as well as its more precious platinum and diamond production.

Some concern remains, however, on rising costs at its platinum operations, which accounts globally for 40 per cent of new production of the metal that is a crucial component in catalytic converters for the automotive sector.

Anglo American also continues to face an increasingly acrimonious legal challenge from Codelco, Chile’s state copper miner, to block Anglo’s sale of a stake in its Chilean copper mining interests to Mitsubishi of Japan for $5.39bn.

The results also come ahead of the expected completion of a deal to buy a 40 per cent stake in De Beers from the Oppenheimer family, taking its stake as high as 85 per cent. Anglo American announced in November it had agreed to pay the Oppenheimers $5.1bn to take control of De Beers, the world’s biggest miner of diamonds.

Earnings
Anglo American FY $4.90 ($3.96)
Lafarge FY €2.29 (€2.89)

Results forecasts, from Thomson Reuters, 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 Reuters 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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