Fool's Eye View

[ November 17, 2000 ]

Reporting Next Week

By Rob Davies (TMFEssex)

Carburton Street, London -- As more and more companies adopt quarterly reporting the flow of news into the market becomes ever more voluminous. Because of that it is impossible to note every company that is reporting results next week, so we comment below on some of the announcements that will be more noteworthy.

Torotrak (LSE: TRK) kicks off on Monday with its interim figures. Profits are still a long way off for this gearbox designer but news of progress on licensing its designs to manufacturers and reports on their test programmes will be eagerly awaited. Also on Monday we will get a lot of news and data on the evolution of the housing market when the October mortgage lending figures are released. Confirmation of anecdotal stories of a slowdown in the residential sector might be expected.

On Tuesday National Grid (LSE: NGG) will announce interim results and should shed some light on the progress towards the much delayed NETA (new electricity trading arrangement) that was expected to replace the electricity Pool this autumn. A changeover is not now expected until the spring. An update on its large US acquisitions will also be keenly sought but the market likes the story and since the stock was highlighted in the Industry Focus 2000 in March it has risen over 40%.

A day later De La Rue (LSE: DLAR) announces interim figures. This company has been out of the limelight for a while, but did spark some interest when Stephen Bland (TMFPyad) highlighted it as a potential value play in this article. More interest will focus on interim results from food retailer J Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY). Will Peter Davis's efforts to boost margins pay off, and will he be able to match the revenue growth shown by arch-rival Tesco (LSE: TSCO)? Technology investors will be interested to hear of progress at IQE (LSE: IQE), a contract manufacturer of epitaxial semiconductors that came to the market this year in the Information Technology Hardware sector. This sector is one of 14 covered in the forthcoming Industry Focus 2001: details will be on the site soon.

Also reporting on Wednesday is Invensys (LSE: ISYS). This troubled engineer and control systems manufacturer has given its shareholders a rough ride since it was created by the merger of BTR and Siebe. A profits warning a few months ago clearly indicated that these interim results will not make good reading either. Rescue in the form of a takeover is unlikely given its particularly tangled accounting history and the market was not enthusiastic about its purchase of Baan, the Dutch software company.

Where Next?

• Complete list of reports due next week from AFX News