Thursday preview: UK corporate giants RBS, Shell, IAG report interims

A raft of company results from the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland, Royal Dutch Shell and International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) will dominate the UK earnings session on Thursday.

RBS is likely to report a significant drop in statutory pre-tax profit in the first quarter amid the lender's major overhaul, according to Numis analyst Mike Trippitt. He predicts a £904m in statutory pre-tax profit, compared to £1.64bn a year earlier, reflecting £696m in restructuring charges.

Ahead of the results, RBS announced it has appointed one of its own executives to run Williams & Glyn, the branch network that is being spun out of the bailed-out bank.

The group has this week also revealed that it has sold a further portfolio of North American loans to Mizuho as it continues to sell off international assets to focus on domestic lending.

Royal Dutch Shell also reports its first quarter and investors will be looking to see how the companies have withstood the slump in crude prices.

“The decline in oil prices over the last year has posed the challenge of how quickly big oil can respond towards an environment of lower prices,” said analyst Nicolas Ziegelasch at Killik & Co.

“For many years big oil has been guilty of using $100 a barrel as a floor to the oil price. With regards to Shell, often too much capital was deployed at too low a return in an effort to chase a higher resource base. The sudden change in the oil price puts much of that investment at risk, with the chance that many assets simply remain too high a cost.”

In response to the slide in oil, Shell purchased BG Group for £42bn, adding attractive low costs assets in Brazil and Australia.

Ziegelasch said the company is stronger having done the acquisition but sees its as “ultimately value neutral” given the lack of information available.

IAG, on the other hand, is expected to show the benefit of lower fuel costs on the back of the decline in crude oil prices. Nomura predicts the owner of British Airways to reveal a €103m year-on-year improvement in first quarter earnings before interest and tax from a loss of €150m to a loss of €47m.

Analyst James Hollins said he expected management to reiterate that it still intends to benefit materially from lower fuel costs, "ie, not having to reduce yields substantially", and to provide further support for consensus forecasts of €2.29bn.

In macro-economics, Eurozone consumer price data will be released with analysts expecting an improvement. The consumer price index is forecast to come in a zero growth in April compared to a year ago, up from a decline of 0.1% in March.

The European Central Bank has been trying to bring inflation back towards its target of just below 2% through its quantitative easing programme.

Eurozone labour market figures are also expected to show improvement with economists estimating the unemployment rate to have fallen to 11.2% in March from 11.3% in February.

Thursday 30 April

INTERIMS
Superglass Holdings

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Abbey, Coral Products, Manchester & London Investment Trust, Wolseley

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust, Card Factory, Fidelity Special Values, Royal Bank of Scotland 11% Cum. Prf, Royal Bank of Scotland 5.5% Cum. Prf., SCS Group , Wetherspoon (J.D.)

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Albion Technology & General VCT, Assura , JP Morgan Chase & Co, Middlefield Canadian Income PCC, Schroder Income Growth Fund, TwentyFour Select Monthly Income Fund Limited

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
City of London Inv Trust, JPMorgan Claverhouse Inv Trust

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chicago PMI (US) (14:45)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
International Reserves (EU) (11:00)
Personal Consumption Expenditures (US) (13:30)
Personal Income (US) (13:30)
Personal Spending (US) (13:30)
Unemployment Rate (EU) (10:00)
Unemployment Rate (GER) (08:55)

Q3
Kofax Limited (DI)

GMS
Bank Pekao SA GDS (Reg S), BT Group, Sphere Medical Holding

FINALS
Access Intelligence, GLOBO, Goldenport Holdings Inc. (DI), Harvey Nash Group, JQW, Saga

ANNUAL REPORT
Kazakhstan Kagazy GDR (Reg S), Matomy Media Group Limited (DI) , Plaza Centers NV

IMSS
Berendsen, Fisher (James) & Sons, Howden Joinery Group, Kaz Minerals , Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting), Synthomer, Tullow Oil

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Brit , Manchester & London Investment Trust

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Foxtons Group , ITV

EGMS
Resource Holding Management Limited (DI)

AGMS
Aga Rangemaster Group, Alkane Energy, Anglo Pacific Group, ARM Holdings, BBGI SICAV S.A. (DI), BBGI SICAV S.A. (DI), Berendsen, BlackRock Latin American Inv Trust, COLT Group SA, Diamond Bank GDR (Reg S), Everyman Media Group , FDM Group (Holdings), Fisher (James) & Sons, Fyffes, GLI Finance Limited, Great Western Mining Corporation, H&T Group, Henderson Group, IndigoVision Group, International Personal Finance, Kalimantan Gold Corp Ltd. (DI), Kerry Group 'A' Shares, LSL Property Services, LSL Property Services, LSL Property Services, Modern Water, Moneysupermarket.com Group, RIT Capital Partners, Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting), STV Group, Synthomer, Tullow Oil, Ultra Electronics Holdings, Unilever, Witan Inv Trust

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Smith & Nephew

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Consumer Confidence (09:30)
GFK Consumer Confidence (00:05)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Asian Total Return Investment Company, Brit , Dragon Oil, Wynnstay Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aer Lingus Group, Capital Drilling Ltd. (DI), Card Factory, Cello Group, Cenkos Securities, Centrica, Cobham, Croda International, Dialight, Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust, F&C Private Equity Trust, Ferrexpo, Foxtons Group , Fresnillo, Henry Boot, Highland Gold Mining Ltd., Holders Technology, Hunting, Hydrogen Group, Informa, ITV, McColl's Retail Group , Merlin Entertainments , Morgan Sindall Group, National Express Group, Neptune-Calculus Income & Growth VCT, Polymetal International, Porvair, Quixant, Reed Elsevier, Regus, Rexam, SDL, Senior, Servelec Group , SIG, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, StatPro Group, SThree, Total Produce, Travis Perkins, Weir Group, William Hill

Q1
First Quantum Minerals Ltd., International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI), Lancashire Holdings Limited, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Royal Dutch Shell 'B', Shire Plc, Smith & Nephew