With a long bank holiday weekend to come, the corporate and economic news diary on Friday can be excused for looking fairly sparse.
The main focus will be on trading updates from FTSE 100-listed exhibitions and business-to-business (B2B) publisher Informa PLC (LON:INF) and FTSE 250-listed engineer Spectris PLC (LON:SXS), while retailer Mothercare PLC (LON:MTC) will also posts its slightly delayed full-year results.
Post-merger benefits to flow for Infoma
Back at the start of March, Informa - which last year completed the near £4bn takeover of rival UBM – accompanied solid 2018 results with news that more than half of its targeted Exhibitor revenues and around two-thirds of its projected Subscription revenues for 2019 were already booked.
The blue chip company also said its accelerated integration plan (AIP) was ahead of schedule giving the group confidence that it can deliver continuing underlying revenue growth, improving margins and strong cash flow in 2019.
In a preview of the latest update, analysts at Peel Hunt pointed out: “We expect the company to report on the new divisional basis that might make comparison more awkward; however, what is the case is that post the GAP programme and the acquisition of UBM the market must be keen to see clear evidence of acceleration in the top line and the conversion of this to better net growth”.
They added: “One point of interest is that our numbers incorporate IFRS 16, including the inclusion of the liability within net debt - a significant non-cash movement to be noted.”
Spectris set for growth despite tough comparatives
Mid cap instrumentation and controls maker Spectris revealed its 2018 financial results in the middle of February, which were slightly ahead of expectations
Chief executive Andrew Heath – who only joined the company last autumn – said then: “We expect sales growth to moderate in 2019, given the more cautious macroeconomic outlook.”
Given that Spectris is hosting a Capital Markets Day on 6 June, which will outline Heath’s new strategic journey for the company, analysts at Peel Hunt think that the latest trading update is likely to be fairly low key.
The City broker’s analysts said: “Along with many Industrial companies, the period 2018 comparator is a tough one in which organic revenue grew by 6%.”
But, they added: “The profit bridge for the year is a conservative one with the main variable being the performance of Concept Life Sciences which we expect to make a profit of £5mln in the current year after a loss of £1.2mln in 2018.”
Will Mothercare have nursed itself back to health?
Retailer Mothercare PLC (LON:MTC) was due to release its full-year results on Thursday but they have been delayed until Friday because its finances were so complicated that they needed an extra day to work on them.
The group said this was “a result of the complexity of our financial year ended 30 March”, which included the £117.5mln refinancing and restructuring last May, the disposal of the Early Learning Centre and the group’s head office.
The high street seller of products for parents and young children, however, said one thing it was certain about was that it expects to deliver underlying results in line with market expectations.
In an April trading update for the fourth quarter, the group said it had achieved £19mln in annualised cost savings from closing stores. There are now just 80 stores in the UK, down from 137 last year.
While the store closures saved it money, the move hit sales in the year to the end of March 2019.
Total group sales fell 14.6% compared to a 1.9% decrease last year. UK sales were down 15.4% in the year after a 4.8% rise in 2018 while like-for-like sales dropped 10.8% after a 1.3% dip.
Mothercare’s sales have come under pressure from competition from online retailers and supermarkets as well as a slowdown in consumer spending. So the focus with the annual results will be on the progress of its bold turnaround plan.
Significant events expected on Friday:
Trading update: Informa PLC (AGM) (LON:INF), Spectris PLC (LON:SXS)
Finals: Mothercare PLC (LON:MTC), Westminster Group PLC (LON:WSG), Volvere PLC (LON:VLE), Urban Logistics Reit PLC (LON:SHED)
AGMs: Bezant Resources PLC (LON:BZT)
Economic data: UK retail sales; CBI UK distributive trades survey; UK BBA mortgage lending figures; US durable goods orders