Tuesday preview: ABF and Imperial Tobacco report full-year results

Primark owner Associated British Foods is expected to report a 5% drop in adjusted full-year earnings on Tuesday, reflecting challenges at its sugar division.

UBS predicts earnings per share of 98p, in line with consensus forecasts and management’s guidance.

“All divisions except sugar (Agriculture, Ingredients, Grocery and retail) are expected to be ahead of last year for operating profit at constant currency,” said UBS analyst Sophie Hughes.

“We expect Primark FY2015 like-for-like sales to be 1% following an acceleration in the fourth quarter.”

Investors may be looking for any remarks on how ABF plans to address the challenges its faces in the sugar industry, which has been affected by lower prices in Europe, tight regulation and public health campaigns.

Imperial Tobacco is also set to report its finals on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank has forecast volumes of 285bn, tobacco revenue of £6.45bn, tobacco operating profit of £2.89bn, earnings per share of 207.5p and a dividend of 140.8p per share.

“While there will be some focus on FY15, we see little risk of Imperial disappointing against our forecasts with recent company updates (9M IMS of mid-August and the September conference season) providing significant comfort against our 207.5p EPS forecast,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Gerry Gallagher. “The focus will be the outlook for FY16 with the USA front and centre.”

Tuesday 3 November

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
M. P. Evans Group, Mears Group

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Auto Sales (US) (15:00)
Factory Orders (US) (15:00)
Goods Orders (US) (15:00)

Q3
Indivior

GMS
Pembroke Vct

FINALS
Associated British Foods, Egdon Resources, Imperial Tobacco

IMSS
Direct Line Insurance Group, Pendragon, Weir Group, Standard Chartered

EGMS
Wizz Air Holdings

AGMS
Jupiter European Opportunities Trust, Marwyn Value Investors Limited, Mobile Streams, Schroder Japan Growth Fund

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Amec Foster Wheeler, Regus

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
PMI Construction (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Produce Investments