Baggeridge Brick builds up a solid performance; Business View.
Byline: Steve PainWest Midlands brick and paving manufacturer Baggeridge Brick is expected to turn in a solid performance when it reports full year results on Wednesday.
Analysts are looking for the group, based in Dudley, to post a 75 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to pounds 5.6 million, with earnings per share of 9.3p. Broker Arbuthnot Securities said the FTSE Fledgling company has had a good year, with supply and demand in the brick market more balanced than last year.
The buoyant housing market has also boosted the firm, particularly in its home Midland market, and the its cost base has stabilised, the broker said. Carpet retailer Carpetright is also unlikely to disappoint when it posts interim results tomorrowbroker KBC Peel Hunt said. The Rainham, Essex-based group is forecast to turn in a 20 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to pounds 64 million and a 13 per cent rise in the dividend per share to about 41.5p.
Although rising interest rates and possibly taxes are expected to slow retail sales growth and the carpet market has declined, Carpetright is positioned to benefit from its strength relative to larger, but weakening, rivals, KBC said. Improving results in the group's operations in the Netherlands and Belgium should contribute to the profits rise, the broker added. Housebuilder Persimmon should tomorrowalso be upbeat about the outlook for 2004 as volume expansion is expected to compensate for lower prices.
As for current trading, the York-based company should tell investors in an update that sales reservations and visitor numbers continue to be healthy and that it is confident of hitting full-year targets. The London market has seen demand soften most but Persimmon will again highlight its small exposure to the region. The group continues to benefit from good cost control and higher selling prices, particularly in the North and Midlands.
Door-to-door catalogue sales business Kleeneze is expected to report flat profits before goodwill and exceptional items of pounds 2.6 million when it reports interim results on Wednesday. But that figure is before losses that the Swindon-based firm -which sells mops, dusters and other household items through its core Kleeneze UK arm -is expected to incur on the sale of its display marketing business DMG, broker Hoare Govett said. Kleeneze, which also has a business called Farepak that provides Christmas hampers, gifts and shopping vouchers on a monthly instalment basis through catalogues, said in July that growth in turnover at Kleeneze UK since the year-end had been encouraging, especially against the background of the weak economic environment.
Meanwhile, analysts say cruise operator Carnival is likely to turn in a 3.9 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to pounds 818 million when it reports full year results on Thursday. Broker Gerrard said the group's operating performance has improved each quarter in the first nine months as booking demand recovered from the Iraq war and Sars virus. If bookings improve further on last year, oil prices do not rise too much from present levels and the dollar remains stable, Carnival should be able to record earnings growth well into double digits, Gerrard said.
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| Title Annotation: | Business |
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| Publication: | The Birmingham Post (England) |
| Date: | Dec 15, 2003 |
| Words: | 522 |
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