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 at http://announce.ft.com and our daily online news summaries record all key company announcements and business press headlines.
Monday 9 September
Interims: Brady, Hydrogen, Escher, Telit Communications, Williams Grand Prix
Finals: City of London Investment Group, Murgitroyd, Ricardo
Trading statement: Associated British Foods
AGMs: Shore Capital, Vatukoula Gold Mines
Tuesday 10 September
Interims: Amara Mining, Deltex Medical, Hilton Food, Netplay TV, Stadium, Surgical Innovations
Finals: Abcam, Ashmore, Craneware, ISG
Trading statement: Whitbread
AGMs: Colefax, Liontrust Asset Management, Oxford Instruments, SuperGroup
EGM: Target Healthcare Reit
Economics: RICS house prices
Wednesday 11 September
Interims: African Minerals, Alkane Energy, Alliance Pharma, Kingfisher
Finals: Barratt Developments, Brooks MacDonald, Thorntons
Trading statement: Sports Direct
AGMs: Frutarom Industries, ITM Power, Petroneft Resources, Severfield-Rowen, Sports Direct, Stewart & Wight, VietNam Holding
EGM: PV Crystalox Solar
Economics: Unemployment data
Thursday 12 September
Interims: 32Red, Elecktron, Fairpoint, Futura Medical, Next, Restore, William Morrison
Finals: Centaur Media, Dunelm, Kier
Trading statements: Darty, Home Retail, Ocado
AGMs: Aurum Mining, Darty, HML, NCC, Newmark Security, Photo-Me, Sirius Real Estate
EGM: Highway Capital
A pre-close trading update from Aim-traded debt management specialist Fairpoint (FRP) has given shareholders a sneak preview of what to expect.
The company's claims management activities continue to perform well, but the core debt solutions activities remain challenging as anticipated, reflecting a 5 per cent fall in IVA market volumes in the first quarter of this year. So to diversify its revenue streams, and boost earnings, Fairpoint has expanded the newly established claims management services segment with new products and has also been making acquisitions to grow its debt management plan activities.
The company can certainly afford to do so because cash generation remains robust and net cash increased to £2.8m in the six months to the end of June, reflecting £3.6m of cash generated from operating activities. That should augur well for the dividend after the board "committed to a long-term progressive dividend policy, which takes into account the underlying growth in earnings and strong cash generation". Analysts are pencilling in a dividend of 6p a share this year, up from 5.5p in 2012, implying a prospective yield of 5 per cent.
The shares are also attractively rated on an earnings basis. Assuming Fairpoint raises full-year adjusted pre-tax profits from £7.5m to £8m, as analysts predict, that lifts EPS from 13.4p to 14.5p. On that basis, the forward PE ratio is only eight and the payout is more than twice covered by earnings. So it would be no surprise to see the board announce a larger than expected boost to the dividend.
Half-year results from Aim-traded online casino operator 32Red (TTR) should make pleasant reading. The Gibraltar-based company has clearly been performing well, because in the first half of this year casino revenues increased 14 per cent to £16.5m, total revenues hit a record of £19m and active casino accounts increased by a third to 42,500 customers after 32 Red recruited 17,500 new players. Importantly, acquisition costs for these new recruits have been kept in check at £159 per player, which is easily covered by a casino yield of almost £400 per player. And this momentum has showed little sign of waning as the gross win was up 12 per cent in the first two weeks of July.
This type of business is highly cash generative, which is good news for income seekers. In fact, the cash pile could be as high as £7.4m, or the equivalent of 10p a share. This has already enabled the board to pay a special dividend of 2.5p a share and analysts predict the half-year and final dividend's payout will both be raised by around 17 per cent to 0.7p and 0.94p, respectively, to produce an attractive forward yield of 3 per cent.
Ahead of the half-year results, analysts forecast that 32Red's revenues this year will rise by over 20 per cent to £39.2m to drive up pre-tax profits from £3.2m to £3.8m and lift underlying EPS by a fifth from 4.1p to 5p. To put the modest valuation into perspective, with the shares priced at 58.5p, the rating is less than 10 times this year's earnings net of cash.
Friday 13 September
Interim: Songbird Estates
Final: JD Wetherspoon
AGM: Reneuron
Economics: Construction output
Shares going ex-dividend on 11 September
| Company | Dividend (p) | Payment |
| Admiral | 48.9 | 11 Oct |
| Advanced Computer Software | 0.4 | 8 Oct |
| Alent | 2.89 | 18 Oct |
| Archipelago Resources | 0.5 | 27 Sep |
| Berendsen | 8.8 | 11 Oct |
| British Assets Trust | 1.4853 | 11 Oct |
| Cape | 4.5 | 11 Oct |
| Clarke (T) | 1 | 11 Oct |
| Clarkson | 19 | 27 Sep |
| Colefax | 2.1 | 10 Oct |
| Communisis | 0.6 | 11 Oct |
| Concurrent Technologies | 0.65 | 27 Sep |
| Dart | 1.33 | 18 Oct |
| Darty | 2.24 | 4 Oct |
| Densitron | 0.1 | 4 Oct |
| Eco Animal Health | 4 | 25 Oct |
| Goodwin | 35.29 | 11 Oct |
| Goodwin | 17.645 | 11 Oct |
| H&T | 2.1 | 11 Oct |
| International Public Partnerships | 3.075 | 23 Oct |
| Land Securities | 7.6 | 11 Oct |
| Rank | 2.85 | 13 Oct |
| Rathbone Brothers | 18 | 9 Oct |
| Savills | 3.5 | 14 Oct |
| Standard Life | 5.22 | 29 Oct |
| Stewart & Wight | 16 | 14 Oct |
| Temple Bar Inv Trust | 15.1 | 30 Sep |
| Tex | 1.5 | 7 Oct |
| Treatt | 5.5 | 18 Oct |
| TVC | 41.66 | 25 Sep |
| UTV Media | 1.75 | 15 Oct |
| Zotefoams | 1.8 | 10 Oct |
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.
