Tuesday’s main focus will be on interims from Whitbread plc (LON:WYB) although the results have rather been overshadowed by news in August of the sale of the Costa coffee business for £3.9bn in cash to Coca-Cola Corp.
That deal was approved by shareholders at a recent meeting and they will now be looking for more details about how the company plans to return the bulk of the proceeds to investors.
In a preview of Whitbread’s interims, Graham Spooner, investment research analyst at The Share Centre commented: “Some of the money is earmarked for expansion of Premier Inn and the market will be interested to hear any further details of that as well as any news on recent trading.
“A slightly weak like-for-like sales figure at the last update in June caused a ripple of surprise among some analysts.”
Assets to grow at St James’s Place
Another blue-chip update will come from wealth manager St James’s Place PLC (LON:STJ), which will provide an Interim Management Statement on third-quarter asset flows and assets under management (AuM).
In a preview, analysts at UBS said they expect the FTSE 100-listed firm’s AuM to £99.8bn, up from £96.6bn at the end of the second-quarter, an increase of £3.2bn.
They see this growth driven by £2.2bn of net inflows and £1.0bn of positive investment performance in the third-quarter.
Plumbing and heating to drive Travis Perkins sales
A former FTSE 100-listed firm, building materials supplier Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK) will also issue a third-quarter update on Tuesday.
UBS’s analysts expect the group – which owns the Wickes and Toolstation businesses – to report a 3.6% increase in like-for-like sales for the quarter, led by 9.5% growth in Plumbing & Heating sales.
The analysts said the key for Travis Perkins, however, will be re-iteration of 2018 guidance after its profit warning in August, which implies broadly flat profitability year-on-year in the second half.
Significant announcements expected on Tuesday October 23:
Interims: Whitbread PLC (LON:WTB), Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LON:BMY), iSpatial PLC (LON:SPA)
Trading updates: St James’s Place PLC (LON:STJ), Travis Perkins PLC (Q3) (LON:TPK), Anglo American PLC (LON:AAL), Bunzl PLC (Q3) (LON:BNZL), Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTU), McBride plc (LON:MCB), Plus 500 Limited (LON:PLUS)
Economic data: CBI UK industrial trends survey; Richmond Fed manufacturing index