Week Ahead: Emerging markets growth a concern at Unilever

Property companies feature heavily this week, but the man in the street may be more interested in an update from consumer goods giant Unilever, maker of the mighty/manky Marmite.

Proactive Published 19/07/2015

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Property companies feature heavily this week, but the man in the street may be more interested in updates from consumer goods giant Unilever.

The Bovril, Dove and Vaseline brands owner reports on Thursday, and concerns over growth in emerging markets will be to the fore, after first quarter year-on-year growth slowed to 5.4% from 5.7% in 2014.

“Performances across countries are likely to have remained mixed, with Russia, due to squeezed consumer incomes, a weak first quarter feature. More favourably, management may reiterate Q1 comments noting that 'despite high levels of currency and commodity volatility, we are now starting to see more tailwinds than headwinds in our markets',” notes Keith Bowman, at Hargreaves Lansdown.

No frills airline easyJet issues a statement on Wednesday covering its third quarter.

Volumes most likely have been strong but management has tipped the wink about softening prices in constant currency.

Deutsche Bank has a hunch that management guidance may prove to be conservative, and does not discount the possibility of a special dividend being announced.

The German bank would like management to put to bed fears that it can compete head-to-head with Ryanair (RYA) by publishing numbers of a few cases “where EZJ performance upon RYA has been maintained”.