APART from the Budget, Standard Life's full-year results are likely to be the main item on the agenda this week, with the company publishing its second set of results since demutulalisation.
The firm is expected to report profit of around £690 million, up 12 per cent on last year's £614m. Analysts are predicting that the Edinburgh-based group is set to reveal a dividend of around 11p per share, compared with the 5.4p paid out last yea
r.
The results come at a time when the firm is under pressure to reveal its succession planning strategy following chief executive Sandy Crombie's 60th birthday in a year's time.
Sources have claimed that the milestone is not a guarantee that Crombie will step down, despite some calls for a change of management following the embarrassment over the firm's failed bid for Resolution Life last year.
Tomorrow the UK's biggest chain of bakeries and sandwich shops and Britain's biggest seller of sausage rolls, Greggs, serves up its final results for the year to 29 December. The group posted a comforting trading update in January, which suggested a strong rise in like-for-like sales, ahead of forecasts and showing growth of 5.3 per cent.
Results from struggling fashion retailer French Connection are likely to be less encouraging on Wednesday. Reporting for the year to 31 January, the group cast a shadow over the high street with yet another profits warning in November 2007.
FC has had a poor run of results in the past two years and the latest in a string of profits warnings comes as no surprise. Sales for the year to January 2007 are forecast at £238.8m.
Deutsche Bank analyst Warwick Okines said: "Industry headwinds drive substantial forecast cuts. A recovery at French Connection requires top-line growth, and industry conditions are clearly unfavourable for this."
On Thursday, the owner of Argos, Home Retail, is expected to publish a trading update covering 6 January to 1 March. The group has already said that it expects to post pre-tax profits at the top end of expectations for the full year despite further pain at Homebase, its DIY chain where like-for-like sales fell 6.3 per cent on continued weak demand for kitchens and bathrooms.
The strength of insurer Prudential overseas – Asia and the US now account for two-thirds of all sales – will be highlighted on Friday when the company reports full-year results.
Prudential Corporation Asia grew sales by 44 per cent to £1.31 billion last year, while a trading update in January showed US-focused Jackson National Life achieved a 19 per cent increase.
UK sales, in contrast, were flat on 2006 at £897m, but this reflected the Pru's policy of targeting those areas of the retirement and savings market where it can generate attractive returns.
PROSTRAKAN MAINTAINS INDEPENDENT STANCEGALASHIELS-based biotech firm ProStrakan, which recently rejected approaches for mergers from cash-strapped rivals from both sides of the Atlantic, is set to report its full-year results on Thursday.
The firm, which is not expected to make its first profit until at least the end of 2009, is forecast to report revenue of around £45.7 million for 2007. Losses are expected to be in the region of £25.9m. The company – which makes products such as testosterone gel and an anti-nausea patch for people undergoing chemotherapy – last year elected to raise debt, which it has claimed has made it "independent of the stock market" fluctuations and immune to the current difficulties raising funds.
