Next in line to impress investors once again

Investors will be watching for growth in full-price sales at Next when the fashion and homewares retailer reports its half-year results on Thursday. In its most recent update, the company said it expected to achieve 3.4 per cent growth by the end of next January and raised its profit outlook for the eighth time in a row from £960 million pre-tax to £980 million. Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, Next’s chief executive, has form for under-promising and over-delivering, so optimistic investors may hope for another upgrade.
The results will land weeks after thousands of Next store staff won a six-year fight for equal pay. An employment tribunal found that Next had not given sufficient justification for paying its retail consultants, who are mostly women, at lower rates than staff in warehouses, where the gender split is more even. The law firm representing the staff has suggested that they could be eligible for back pay worth more than £30 million. Shareholders may expect an update, especially as Next has said that it plans to lodge an appeal.
Half-year results from Petershill Partners will cap a busy few weeks for the Goldman Sachs-backed investment vehicle. The London-listed company owns stakes in firms that are focused on private capital, from which it earns part of their fee income. Shareholders last heard from the business this month, when it said this month that it had sold its stake in LMR Partners for as much as $258 million. An update from Petershill in July showed that its aggregate assets under management at partner firms had risen to $332 billion by the end of June, from $304 billion six months earlier.
Finals Ferguson Enterprises, Litigation Capital Management, McBride, Springfield Properties
Interims Billington, DP Poland, EJF Investments, EKF Diagnostics, Fintel, Franchise Brands, Good Energy, Headlam, Henry Boot, IP Group, Jadestone Energy, JTC, Kingfisher, Learning Technologies, Next, Petershill Partners, Team17, TruFin, Warpaint London
The chief executive of M&C Saatchi will have his first opportunity to outline the company’s refreshed strategy alongside interim results. Zaid al-Qassab, who took the top job at the advertising group in May, is expected to outline progress on operating efficiencies after high inflation put pressure on advertising spending. Analysts expect a revenue fall of 3.7 per cent for the six months to September 18, with adjusted profit before tax down 37.9 per cent. However, Shore Capital said the like-for-like figures would partly reflect divestments of lossmaking businesses.
It has been a tough year for investors in PZ Cussons, with shares in the group behind Imperial Leather down by more than a third as the market assessed its exposure to Nigeria, where the naira, the local currency, has fallen in value. The company expects to report revenues of about £528 million for the year to the end of May and adjusted operating profit of £55 million to £60 million. Investors will focus on the result of a strategic review, launched in April.
Finals MJ Gleeson, PZ Cussons, Supermarket Income Reit Interims Advanced Medical Solutions, Argentex, LBG Media, M&C Saatchi, Pharos Energy, Skillcast, Strix, Xaar Trading update Moonpig
Economy ONS monthly inflation figures, US Federal Reserve interest rate decision
Galliford Try has fared a little better than most expected in the past year, thanks to new contract wins and fatter margins. Its full-year results will be the first from Kris Hampson, the construction group’s new finance chief, and analysts are forecasting that the company will deliver revenue of about £1.7 billion for the 12 months to the end of June, while pre-tax profits should rise by a third to about £31.5 million. In July Galliford said that its order book had grown to £3.8 billion, which includes contracts with Thames Water and South West Water, the Scottish government and the Ministry of Justice.
Andrew Nussey, an industry analyst at Peel Hunt, expects “a confident reiteration of the 2030 targets” that the board set out earlier in the year. He said these suggested that earnings and dividends each could grow by 15 per cent a year until the end of the decade.
Finals Close Brothers, Galliford Try Interims Judges Scientific, Maintel, Next, Northcoders, S4 Capital Trading update Ocado
Economy Bank of England interest rate decision
Interims Biome Technologies Trading update Investec
Economy ONS monthly retail sales, ONS public sector finances