B&M European Value Retail (LON:BME), somewhat controversially, has had a pretty good pandemic. The general merchandise store was able to stay open during lockdown because its product lines include food items, although the retailer is few people’s idea of a grocer.
Its full-year results on Thursday should make happy reading for its shareholders, with the company having tipped the wink to the market that underlying earnings (EBITDA) should fall somewhere between £590mln and £620mln, up from £342.3mln the year before.
In a worst-case scenario, that’s a 72% year-on-year increase in EBITDA, which would be a significant improvement on the 7.1% year-on-year increase seen the year before.
The investment analyst community is expecting EBITDA to clock in at around £600mln after the company did the decent thing and repaid rates relief of around £80mln.
Things might not roll the company’s way so conveniently now that lockdown restrictions are ending and the market will be keen to hear how current trading is going.
“Given the exceptional growth and increase in profitability in FY20/21e due to greater demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, the company already pointed to forecasting challenges for the year ahead, FY21/22e,” noted UBS.
Pennon resurfaces with results
Water firm Pennon Group PLC (LON:PNN) is unlikely to cause many fireworks in its final results on Thursday, having said back in March that it expects to meet its full-year expectations.
Given everyone has been stuck indoors during the pandemic water use is unlikely to have changed much, while the group has also said its cash collection has held up and bad debts are within guidance for the pandemic.
With this in mind, shareholders will be taking an interest in any investment plans the company has after selling its Viridor business last year for £3.7bn, which could potentially include some acquisitions or a substantial payout for investors.
Thursday June 3
Finals: Pennon Group PLC (LON:PNN), B&M European Value Retail SA (LON:BME), Braemar Shipping Services PLC (LON:BMS), discoverIE Group PLC (LON:DSCV), NewRiver REIT plc (LON:NRR), Workspace Group PLC (LON:WKP)
Interims: Chemring Group PLC (LON:CHG)
FTSE 100 ex-dividends to knock 5.1 points off the index: Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF), Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF), Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LON:SMT), National Grid PLC (LON:NG.)
Economic data: UK services PMI, US ADP employment data, US jobless claims, US services PMI, US non-manufacturing PMI