Companies reporting this week

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

INVESTORS will have to look among small cap stocks for results this week as advertising giant WPP is the only blue-chip company scheduled to report figures in the run-up to the holiday weekend.

Advertising boss Sir Martin Sorrell's opinions on the pace of the global economic recovery should - as usual - be the main talking point in the City when WPP reports half-year results on Friday.

Sorrell's previous forecast was for an upturn in 2004 as the US Presidential election and the Athens Olympics provide a welcome boost to demand for the hard-pressed advertising and media industry.

Fresh from a hard-fought takeover of debt-laden rival Cordiant this summer, WPP is expected by fund manager Gerrard to report interim pre-tax profits of £184m, an improvement of £10m on a year earlier.

Air filtration group Domnick Hunter's focus on recession resistant sectors such as food and pharmaceuticals should have safeguarded it from the worst of the economic downturn when it reports half-year figures on Wednesday.

The company's products have been used in the brewing process of Guinness and the purification of carbon dioxide for fizzy drinks, while it has also tested systems aimed at protecting people from nuclear or biological attack.

Analysts expect profits in the region of £5.8m, up from the £4.9m seen in the first half of 2002. The company employs more than 1,400 people worldwide, including at Birtley, County Durham.

Biotech group Celltech's half-year results on Tuesday will provide analysts with the first guide to trading since the addition of Oxford Glycosciences, which was acquired in July.

Approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for an OGS treatment for Gaucher's disease provided Celltech with a recent lift although the City will still be keen to learn more about the company's development pipeline.

Celltech, which is the UK's biggest biotech company with products used for studies into rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and lung cancer, is expected to post profits in the region of £16m, compared with £11.9m last time.

Robust revenue growth should help specialist lender Cattles to deliver a 16% rise in half-year profits to £43.8m on Thursday.

Analysts at Citigroup are also expecting bad-debt levels to increase only slightly as Cattles, which offers unsecured loans and runs hire purchase schemes, continues to benefit from a new IT system designed to weed out high-risk borrowers.

Turnover should leap 20% to £279.8m. Cattles' consumer division includes Shopacheck, a weekly doorstep credit business, and Welcome, where customers pay back loans through monthly direct debits.

Engineering group Weir is expected to post lower pre-tax profits on Wednesday as the impact of the Gulf War and weak global demand leave their mark on half-year figures, forecast to fall to £23m from £25.6m last time.

But Weir, which makes a range of pumps and valves for the mining, oil and gas industries, could also benefit from recent events as it has already flagged up the potential to play a part in the rebuilding of Iraq.

The Glasgow-based company, which employs more than 8,000 people worldwide, currently derives around 8% of its turnover from the Middle East.

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