The Week Ahead 4 - 20th to 24th May 2013

Markets continue to go up, dips keep on being bought.

A selection of companies reporting this week.

Tuesday, 21st May

Interim - Greencore Group updates the market and has been recovering well after falling heavily back in February due to the horsemeat scandal. That blip in the share price when it fell to around 80p has been more than made up as it now stands at around 118p.

Finals -  Telecom Plus and Vodafone.

We could see two contrasting reports from these two telecoms companies. Telecom Plus just seems to keep on going up and up on the back of good results, it has been a good few years since it has had any blip in performance. As a FTSE250 growth company it will be a surprise if they come up with anything unexpected.

On the other hand Vodafone might be about to make an announcement about the size of likely future dividends if press speculation is anything to go by. There is also the little matter of their Verizon Wireless holding which continues to help keep the price up in recent months on speculation of a buy out, but remains an ace card for the company if ever a deal is done.

Business elsewhere is not so hot.

Meanwhile, Vodafone is expected to reveal annual results that show the impact of the continuing Eurozone crisis and European regulation on its core business. 

Vodafone will report a drop in sales in the wake of heightened competition, analysts predict. 

They have also projected that the company will show its growing reliance on Verizon Wireless for profits. Last week, Vodafone announced that will receive more than £2.0bn from its stake in the US join venture with Verizon. 

Verizon Wireless, which has been at the centre of takeover rumours by Verizon for months, is paying a total of $7.0bn to shareholders at the end of June. 

Vodafone, which owns 45% in VZW, will receive $3.2bn, while Verizon will pocket the rest. 

http://www.digitallook.com/news/20907957/Tuesday_preview_M_S_and_Vodafone_report.html?username=&ac=

Final - Marks and Spencer. Not expected to be that good which given the recent run up in the share price since mid March makes you wonder what is going on. The easy answer is that we are in a bull market which takes everything up with it, but the results this week could see a sell off if profits are down as many expect. Better to have ridden the wave up with this one perhaps.

Analysts forecast M&S will report its lowest annual profit in four years, as the retailer’s struggling general merchandise division continues to offset a rise in food sales. 

The firm’s clothing business has posted seven consecutive quarters of underlying sales declines, prompting an overhaul of the division to draw in more customers. 

M&S is anticipated to post a pre-tax profit of £640 to £670m with a consensus of £658m, according to a company poll reported by Reuters. The group made a £706m profit the year earlier. 

http://www.digitallook.com/news/20907957/Tuesday_preview_M_S_and_Vodafone_report.html?username=&ac=

Thursday, 23rd May

Final - Qinetiq. Will be interesting to see what if anything they report on cutbacks or delayed contracts with the US as budget spending goes on hold. Share price has dipped and struggled recently on fears that spending on defense will be cut going forward.

Video market round up for week ending 14th September

A week ending round up of the markets from Steve Briggs YouTube channel.

This week also includes a look at the general retailers sector and Marks & Spencer, Next and Debenhams.

More videos can be found at Steve's YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/user/sjb5555.

Marks & Spencer, who's up for a bid? Should they be looking at Sainsbury?

When it was reported that banks were recently looking at the possibility of UK High Street icon Marks & Spencer as a potential takeover target, it was thought they might just be fishing for business.  There was some talk of a potential private buyout, but no names were mentioned.  Do we now have that name?

ADVFN market report quoted from Bloomberg;

Shares in Marks & Spencer jumped on Friday afternoon on rumours that private equity titan CVC Capital Partners is considering a takeover offer for the High Street group. It is thought that CVC is looking at an bid and has approached executives both inside and outside the firm “about a possible management role under private equity control,” according to Bloomberg which has spoken to unnamed sources close the matter.

Well, I'm not sure that Bloomberg actually went that far.  It seems that a bid was considered at some time in the past, but is not currently being pursued.

CVC Capital Partners Ltd. has explored taking Marks & Spencer private as the U.K.’s largest clothing chain’s sales slump amid a lack of demand for its fashions, people close to the matter said.

CVC approached executives both inside and outside the company about a possible management role under private equity control, said the people, who declined to be identified as the talks were confidential. The buyout firm has not moved beyond a preliminary examination of the U.K. retailer and is not currently thought to be pursuing a bid, the people said. 

Marks & Spencer - Takeover target or just banks fishing for business?

The Marks & Spencer share price has been up today on talk of the company being a takeover target.  My attention was drawn to it in the ADVFN morning market report because something didn't quite sit right with the story.

Here's what ADVFN reported;

"M&S was a high riser on the FTSE 100 after the Sunday Telegraph reported that the High Street giant is the subject of takeover talks. The paper said that bankers at a number of London institutions have assessed the possibility of providing debt finance for a speculative bid of £6bn."