Wiseman set to bring some festive cheer

MARKET watchers are bracing themselves for one of the busiest weeks of the year with a host of bluechips reporting interim and full year results.

Robert Wiseman can be relied upon to light up the market. The company, still the subject of a long-winded OFT investigation, will post record interim results on Tuesday. The figures will show whether Wiseman can meet analysts lofty expectations of a full-year profit of £27m for the full year to April 2004, compared with £22.8m last year.

Wiseman is also expected to unveil plans to open a new depot in the south of England as it plays catch-up on market leader Express Dairies. Robert Wiseman, newly crowned Entrepreneur of the UK, will try and convince the City that the UK still offers lots of potential for growth. Wiseman is banking on persuading supermarkets that his state of the art dairies can provide a better supply than the opposition.

Tuesday also sees Scottish & Newcastle post full-year results. Times are a changing at the brewer, now that it has a new chief executive and has finally ridden itself of those pesky pubs in a £2.5bn disposal to Spirit. Tony Froggatt, a native from Down Under, is still mourning Australia’s loss to England in the World Cup. He can console himself by announcing a rise in pre-tax profits from £310m to £315m.

Analysts will want to know what S&N is going to buy next and where growth will come from over the medium-term. The group is changing its year-end from December so its full-year results on Tuesday will reflect only eight months of trading.

Aberdeen Asset Management will also post full-year results on Tuesday. Martin Gilbert has performed a minor miracle in keeping the company afloat over the last 12 months. But reality will hit home when the company posts a negligible pre-tax profit compared with a healthy £41m last year.

Shareholders can worry about their dividend as well. It was 6p last year, and analysts expect only 4p this time. But Gilbert still has one eye on reducing AAM’s debt, and this correspondent would not be surprised if Gilbert sacrifices some of the expected dividend in favour of further prudent housekeeping.

To complete a hectic Tuesday analysts expect catering giant Compass to shake off the effect of a weak global economy to post a 3% rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £675m. Revenues growth is forecast to be 5% in the UK and 7% in North America while Europe is expected to achieve 6% despite slowing economies.

Hotels group De Vere said in its interim results that it had suffered lower occupancy levels - caused by a lack of US tourists and a downturn in business activity affecting the entire sector. Its full-year results on Wednesday are set to show a 3% rise in pre-tax profits to £39m, spurred by growth in its leisure clubs and an improvement in trading in the second half of the year at its hotels.

Investors in UK pubs groups will pay attention to full-year results from Wolverhampton & Dudley on Wednesday and interim figures from Mitchells & Butlers on Thursday - with both set to report falls in pre-tax profits. With Punch gobbling up Pubmaster earlier this month, the sector is trading on a takeover premium.

A number of disposals at Wolverhampton & Dudley is set to cut pre-tax profits by 4% to £71m, although trading has been good due to the summer heatwave while debt levels are expected to recede.

Sizzling summer temperatures also boosted like-for-like sales at Mitchells & Butlers but intense competition at its high street portfolio will see pre-tax profits fall by an anticipated 7% to £190m.