News

Diageo is due to publish full year results tomorrow. The drinks giant saw organic net sales growth of 7% over the nine months to 31 March, which was good enough to persuade the company to maintain guidance for 9% organic operating profit growth for the full year.

The outlook for next year is not so certain, with the Guinness owner facing weakening conditions in many of its key markets, notably the USA, the UK, Ireland and Spain. The company is relying on fast growing markets in Asia and Eastern Europe to pick up the slack. The market consensus is for pre-tax profit of £2.2bn on revenue of £8.1bn.

Diageo's chief executive, Willie Walsh, may come under pressure to succumb to industry trends and go for a high profile merger, a la Inbev (purchasers of Anheuser-Busch).

Market rumours suggest Dutch brewer Heineken may be a complementary fit for Diageo, which is predominantly a spirits brand company.

Earlier this month online gaming group 888 reported a 36% rise in second quarter operating income and said it has made a good start to the third quarter. It will be interesting to see whether the Olympic Games has proved a distraction, luring players away from online poker, or a boon, offering punters the opportunity to bet on more sporting events.

If PartyGaming's experience is anything to go by, the games will have proved a distraction. The online gaming group claimed last month that its revenues had been hit by customers being lured away by the Euro 2008 football tournament. Though the company does offer the opportunity for customers to bet on sporting events, this side of the business is dwarfed by the online poker and casino games.

Partygaming expects full-year results will meet expectations, but legal issues in the US remain a drag on the share price, with a settlement with the US Department of Justice still to be negotiated.

Broker Panmure Gordon is expecting Pendragon to announced adjusted pre-tax profit of £19m, down from £32.7m a year ago, as the car retailer gets to grips with the slowdown in consumer spending.

"The key things we will be looking for are the state of its balance sheet, and whether it is in a position to survive during the next 12 months or so," the broker was quoted as saying.

Hovis bread group Premier Foods has been successful in passing on increased ingredient costs to the consumer, and is expected to post pre-tax profits of between £56m and £62m when it declares its interim results. Last year the company made £57.8m at the pre-tax stage.

The company has been successfully rejuvenating the Hovis brand since acquiring it as part of the RHM deal. Investors will also keep an eagle eye out for how the integration of the Campbell Foods acquisition is proceeding.

Sub-prime lender Cattles is expected by broker KBC Peel Hunt to report a 20% increase in total income to £463m, while pre-tax profit is expected to improve by 36% to £82m.

The company, which saw a 96.7% subscription rate for its recent rights issue, said back in May it made a good start to the financial year but the economic situation has deteriorated since then, and future prospects may not be so rosy, with KBC predicting a dividend cut in 2009.

The company recently announced the first step in its plan to reduce its dependence on the wholesale loan market by hooking up with the Newcastle Building Society to provide online savings accounts.

Thursday August 28

INTERIMS
888 Holdings, Aegis, Aer Lingus Group, AFI Development, Amec, Avis Europe, BBA Aviation, Capital & Regional, Cattles, Charter, Chaucer Holdings, Clarkson, Computacenter, Corin Group, Cyprotex, Devro, Ferrexpo, Filtrona, Forth Ports, Globus Maritime, Goldenport, Havelock Europa, Haynes Publishing, Henderson Group, Henry Boot, Heritage Oil, Heywood Williams, Highway Insurance, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Huntin, IMI, ING UK Real Estate Income Trust, IP Group, Kazakhmys, Kiln, Kingdom Hotel, Macfarlane Group, Melrose Resources, MWB Group Holdings, New World Resources, Parity, Parkwood Holdings, Pendragon, Pinewood-Shepperton, Premier Foods, Premier Oil, Rugby Estates Investment Trust, Savills, Skyepharma, SMG, Sopheon, Stem Cell Sciences, Styles & Wood, Tolent, UK Coal, Venture Production, Vernalis, Visonic, Wellstream Holdings, X5 Retail

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Ld

FINALS
Ceramic Fuel Cells, Diageo, Impala Platinum

EGMS
Promethean India, Scottish Investment Trust

AGMS
Aberdeen New Dawn, Berkeley Group Holdings Units, Cohort, Dart Group, DQ Entertainment, Innovision Research & Technology, John Swan, New Century AIM VCT, Strategic Natural Resources

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
John Swan, Northern Foods

QUARTERLY RESULTS
Ote