Pre-tax profit of £205m is forecast, up from £178m in 2003.Results: Full year - Aggregate Industries, British Vita, Financial Objects, IMI, Incisive Media, Intertek, Keller Group, Marlborough Sterling, Taylor Nelson Sofres, Travis Perkins, Vitec.TOMORROW: Recent bid speculation has caused a resurgence in the share price of French Connection. Analysts are looking for it to maintain profit margins, but the broker Williams de Br?eels it will struggle to "push this much further". At Travis, the recent acquisition of Wickes - which has made the company more consumer focused - will be a talking point. There is speculation of a rise in the dividend or a share buy-back programme.
The City is expecting a 17 per cent jump in pre-tax profits to £290m.TODAY: Building materials suppliers will be in focus as Aggregate Industries, IMI and Travis Perkins release results. He will also be pressed to quantify the beneficial impact of regulatory changes and update on cost savings. With SMG, the owner of two ITV licences, and Ulster TV, which holds a further licence, reporting this week, a complete picture of the ITV market should emerge.Charles Allen, ITV's chief executive, is likely to try to focus attention on the new digital channels, ITV2 and ITV3, and the possibility of an ITV4. So clues on the current state of the ad market will be keenly watched for. For the current year, investors also worry that, after a strong first quarter for television advertising, there will be a sharp slowdown in the second quarter. This will be a busy week for the media sector, with ITV leading the companies releasing results.
A detailed picture of the state of media markets should emerge. The other media groups reporting figures include Aegis, Taylor Nelson Sofres, T&F Informa, Chime Communications, Ulster TV, SMG and Incisive Media.At ITV, which has full-year results on Wednesday, strong profit growth is expected but questions remain about how the company will drive the top line and address its poor audience ratings performance last year.Some analysts fear ITV will announce it must spend more on programming to try to win back viewers. But because public sector services are too often calibrated by quantity of inputs rather than quality of outputs, it's difficult to find any convincing evidence to date that the desired productivity improvements are really coming through.Stephen King is managing director of economics at HSBCstephen.king hsbcib . Second, the Government has to demonstrate that its investment in the public sector is adding to the nation's productivity performance - if that were true, higher wages really wouldn't matter. First, the UK should keep the doors open for immigration, a conclusion that will hardly please the Daily Mail readers of this world.
