Aviva PLC’s (LON:AV.) should on Thursday shed some light on how it has been doing in the second half of the year, as well as give its outlook for the new financial period.
In August, the insurer said uncertainty will persist in the near term meaning that growth and profitability targets will be harder to deliver, so the market will be looking for updates on that.
Investors will look for potential new sales after the recent deals aimed at strengthening the company’s liquidity, as part of its broader capital management and debt reduction effort.
This month the insurer completed the sale of its entire holding in an Indonesian joint venture, as announced in March, while in September it offloaded a majority stake in its Singapore subsidiary in a GBP1.6bn deal.
Britvic refreshed by Pepsi
Britvic PLC (LON:BVIC), the Robinson’s and Tango soft drinks group, will also report full year results , fresh from last month’s new bottling agreement with PepsiCo that lifted the shares to their highest point since early March.
The 20-year agreement is for the production, distribution, marketing and sales of Pepsi’s carbonated soft drink brands, including Pepsi, 7UP, Mountain Dew and Rockstar.
The FTSE 250-listed group also reassured on current trading, saying adjusted earnings (EBIT) for the full year 2020 are anticipated to be slightly ahead of market forecasts at the time, following better than expected trading across the peak summer period.
City analysts still estimate organic net sales growth will be down around 6.4%.
“In light of renewed lockdowns in GB and France, we think investor focus will be on current training in the off-trade channel and impact of on-premise shut down on Britvic’s profits,” said UBS.
Eyes on Severn Trent PLC
Water utility Severn Trent PLC (LON:SVT) has been a pretty solid performer over the past year despite the pandemic, so investors will be hoping the interim figures have aligned well with the company’s forecast for the full year.
There will also be eyes on the company’s predicted hit from the pandemic, with the group having previously estimated an GBP80-GBP85mln revenue reduction due to lower consumption from businesses and a rise in bad debts as consumers struggle to pay their bills.
As always, the dividend will also be in focus, which the company has said it will increase in line with consumer price index (CPIH) inflation, which was around 1.5% at the start of the year.
Thursday November 26
Trading updates: Aviva PLC (LON:AV.)
Interims: Severn Trent PLC (LON:SVT), First Property Group PLC (LON:FPO), JLEN Environmental Assets Group Ltd (LON:JLEN), Motorpoint Group PLC (LON:MOTR), Newriver REIT PLC (LON:NRR), OTAQ PLC (LON:OTAQ), XPS Pensions Group PLC (LON:XPS)
Finals: Britvic PLC (LON:BVIC), Tracsis PLC (LON:TRCS)
FTSE 100 ex-dividends to knock 5.26 points off the index: Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN), Land Securities Group PLC (LON:LAND), National Grid PLC (LON:NG.), Imperial Brands PLC (LON:IMB)
