Parliament’s storm is set to rage on into Thursday after the attorney general’s confirmation that a motion for a snap election will be put to MPs “very shortly”, while investors will be kept busy updates from pub company Mitchells & Butlers and others.
Last time we heard from All Bar One and Harvester pubs and restaurants owner Mitchells & Butlers PLC (LON:MAB), it was bragging about outperforming the market.
Well, it makes a change from its years trying to mollify analysts worried about its debt mountain which, like most mountains, seems to have been around forever.
The debt position is still a concern, for sure, but is heading in the right direction; at the end of April net debt had been whittled to a still eye-watering £1.63bn from £1.72bn a year earlier.
In Thursday’s trading update, however, analysts might be more interested in like-for-like sales growth rather than debt reduction, as this was picking up pace when the company issued a third-quarter trading update at the end of July.
Like-for-like (LFL) sales in the 10 weeks to 27 July were up 2.8% year-on-year, despite drink sales being 0.3% lower on a year earlier, which was probably a reflection on the 2018 period including the World Cup and a glorious summer.
Year-to-date, LFL sales were up 3.6%, with drink sales up 3.1% and food sales up 3.9%. Analysts think growth for the full-year could fall somewhere between 3.0% and 3.5%.
Analysts will likely be looking to see whether Mitchells and Butlers can keep the fizz in their drinks sales, as growth flattened in the final ten weeks until 31 July to only down to 0.3%, with food sales picking up the slack.
Alfa not a beater
In the hot seat is Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC (LON: ALFA) as it releases results for the first half of the year.
Investors already know about most of the bad news after Alfa’s profit warning last week, which sent the shares tumbling 17%.
The company, which recently dropped out of the FTSE 250 after a 47% slump over the past 52 weeks, cut its profit expectations to £5mln in the six months to end-June, down 41% from the year before.
The maker of software for the asset finance industry revised its full-year profit for 2019 to between £63mln and £65mln, which is significantly below previous expectations.
Investors will be scrutinising the results for details about the declining spend by customers on optional upgrades and non-critical work, which Alfa said was partly responsible for the profit disappointment along with delays to project implementation.
Alfa said that consumers are spending less because of a “broader macro uncertainty”, which is unlikely to lessen tomorrow as eyes are fixed on a parliamentary motion for a general election.
The outlook may be sweetened by smaller successes, as Alfa reports beginning work with two new EMEA customers in advance of finalising licence agreements.
Thursday September 26:
Finals: Grit Real Estate Income Group Ltd (LON:GR1T), Orient Telecoms PLC (LON:ORNT)
Interims: Alfa Financial Software Holdings PLC (LON:alfa), Circassia Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:CIR), Ebiquity PLC (LON:EBQ), Northbridge Industrial Services Plc (LON:NBI), Pelatro PLC (LON:PTRO)
Trading statements: Mitchells & Butlers PLC (LON:MAB)
AGMs: Kromek Group PLC (LON:KMK), Sure Ventures PLC (LON:SURE)
FTSE 100 ex-dividends: Hargreaves Lansdown Plc (LON:HL), WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW), Smurfit Kappa Group plc (LON:SKG), Prudential PLC (LON:PRU), Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB), Schroders PLC (LON:SDR)
Economic data: US weekly jobless, US GDP, US inflation