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Week Ahead 11-15 February

A summary of key company announcements expected in the coming week
January 31, 2013

Welcome to the week ahead, our summary of the forthcoming key company announcements. Companies are no longer obliged to notify the London Stock Exchange (LSE) of results and trading updates, so this list does not claim to be comprehensive. You can read company announcements on at http://announce.ft.com and our daily online news summaries record all key company announcements and business press headlines.

Monday 11 February

Interims: Avation, Kofax, Monitise

Final: Fidessa

Trading statement: Essar Energy

AGM: RWS

Tuesday 12 February

Interims: Albemarle & Bond, Dunelm, Sinclair IS Pharma

Finals: Barclays, Dragon Oil

Trading statements: Hibu, United Drug, Volex, Xstrata

AGM: United Drug

Economics: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors house prices data, Producer prices, Office for National Statistics house price data, Consumer price index data, Retail price index data.

Albemarle & Bond (ABM) releases interim results on Tuesday, and the pawnbroker has already warned that profits this year will fall because fewer customers are looking to sell gold items. However, it was always going to be tough to match the exceptional levels of business seen in the first half of the previous year, and while relatively subdued, margins and volume in the first four months of the current financial year were pretty much unchanged from the second half of last year. The core pawn broking side and unsecured lending products were trading much in line with the fourth quarter of the previous year too, although this did not include the key Christmas trading period. And because the gold buying side remains subdued, management has switched emphasis away from more gold buying pop-up outlets to implementing a store expansion programme, and is on target to open five new stores in the full-year, with three of these already operational – that takes the total number of outlets up to 233. Of the 118 stores opened since June 2009, over half are now making an operating profit.

Wednesday 13 February

Interim: Town Centre Securities

Finals: African Barrick Gold, Anglo Pacific, Reckitt Benckiser, Telecity, Tullow Oil

AGM: Impax Asset Management

Economics: Bank of England inflation report

Thursday 14 February

Finals: AMEC, Electric Word, Morgan Crucible, Rio Tinto, Rolls-Royce, Shire, SVG Capital

Trading statements: Halma, Helical Bar, Norcros

It’s been an eventful few months for Rolls-Royce (RR.). First, a visit from the Serious Fraud Office amid allegations of bribery and corruption in the Far East, then Boeing grounds its fleet of 787 Dreamliners. Still, neither of these issues has affected sentiment. And nor should they. After a short downshift on the first scandal, Rolls shares have recovered and reached a record high. Analysts at Liberum Capital think a fine along the lines of BAE’s $400m (£253m) wrist-slap in 2010 would only shave 16p a share off their valuation. That said, hiring star lawyer Lord Gold is a sensible precaution. Of course, defence cuts hurt, too, but Rolls is embedded on key programmes and is slashing costs. A £60bn order book and huge share of the buoyant commercial aerospace engine market, including the new Airbus A350, also mean less volatile earnings. Look for adjusted pre-tax profits of £1.4bn in 2012, says Liberum.

Morgan Crucible (MGCR) has already lowered full-year expectations following a third quarter profits warning in October. Now, it’s trying to strip out £8m of costs, but it will come too late for these results. Indeed, underlying pre-tax profit reversed sharply last year, undoing much of the good work done in 2011. Citigroup has pencilled in a 29 per cent slump to £85m, giving underlying EPS of 21p. True, both data and sentiment have improved recently and there is a growing sense that the autumn was a low point. Morgan shares have risen more than a quarter since, but we want to see the order book before tweaking our hold recommendation. Morgan’s high-temperature insulating material 'superwool’ may have bags of potential, but it’s the carbon business that’s struggling to repair margins and the NP Aerospace body armour unit where trouble often lurks.

Rio Tinto (RIO) foreshadowed a $14bn (£8.7bn) write-down ahead of the publication of its full-year results, although a relatively modest decline in the share price indicated that the City had already factored-in another probable revaluation of the group’s aluminium business. Like BHP Billiton (BLT), Rio is expected to report a hefty fall in full-year profits this time around – from $15.5bn (£9.81bn) in 2011 to $9.1bn for 2012. Looking ahead, Rio will outline the group’s focus on cost-cutting and capital expenditure restraint, although everything’s relative, of course. It has just been announced that Rio will invest $3bn to grow annual production at the Nammuldi mine in Western Australia from 8m cubic metric tons of iron ore to 23m tons as well as build a 130 megawatt power plant at Cape Lambert.

Friday 15 February

Final: Anglo American

Trading statements: Darty, Severn Trent, Treatt

EGM: Assura

Economics: Retail sales figures

Shares going ex-dividend on 13 February

CompanyDividend(p)Payment
AstraZeneca120.518-Mar
Avon Rubber 2.415 Mar
BlackRock Income &Growth Inv Trust3.4508 Mar
Picton Property Income0.7528 Feb
Pressure Technologies508 Mar
Royal Dutch Shell A27.0528 Mar
Royal Dutch Shell B27.0528 Mar
Sage Group 6.6708 Mar
Sinclair (William) 2.614 Mar
Stavert Zigomala2504 Mar
Utilico Emerg.Markets Utilities 1.52512 Mar

The ex-dividend date is the first day on which it is no longer possible to buy the shares and qualify for the dividend. Ex-days are almost always a Wednesday. The record date is usually two days after the ex-date. The payment day is the day on which the funds are transferred to shareholders.