Events and publishing group Informa PLC (LON:INF) headlines what looks like being a relatively quiet Friday in London after what has been a busy week so far.
In its last update, the FTSE 100 company posted a 5% rise in half-year revenues to £957.1mln, while adjusted operating profits climbed 3% to £294.4mln.
Even with a 6% rise in the interim dividend to boot, the results still fell flat.
Friday’s third-quarter update will give investors chance to see how UBM is settling in – the rival it acquired for almost £4bn earlier in the year.
The addition of UBM gives Informa greater scale and international reach, which the board reckons could help it meet its ambition of exceeding 3.5% underlying revenue growth in 2018, while the merger is expected to deliver £50mln of annual savings.
Back in July’s update, chief executive Stephen Carter said: “Our focus for the second half is clear: to maintain consistent operating performance, as we implement our Accelerated Integration Plan to combine UBM and Informa and create a truly international B2B information services group.”
UK data deluge on Friday
On the domestic macro front, a host of data releases on Friday should give a much clearer picture of where the UK economy stands with the country on the brink of hopefully inking a Brexit deal.
The most important will be the first estimate of third-quarter GDP which is expected to show a modest improvement on the second quarter, with year-on-year growth of 1.3%.
The services sector drove the UK economy forward in the second quarter, while construction also made positive contributions, however, the industrial and manufacturing sectors acted as a drag.
So it will be interesting to see if these two sectors continue to act as a drag, chances are that they did according to economists, who expect September UK industrial and manufacturing productions numbers, released at the same time, to drop back significantly compared to August.
Friday November 9:
Trading update: Informa PLC (LON:INF). Morgan Advanced Materials PLC (LON:MGAM)
Interims: Volex PLC (LON:VLX)
Economic data: UK quarterly GDP first estimate; UK construction output; UK trade figures; US PPI; US Michigan consumer sentiment index; US wholesale inventories