Friday preview: Hornby, Rolls-Royce

Christmas is coming, which is the most important time of the year for model railway set and Scalextric maker Hornby, but before then the company releases its interim results on Friday.The company has already signalled that it is on track for a good year after broadening its supply base, while its London 2012 Olympics range of collectibles is gaining sales momentum.The market will be looking for more news on how much the London Olympiad is likely to boost revenues. The company indicated in August that the company's range of London Olympics-themed collectibles has opened the door to a number of new retail outlets for the firm which it hopes to continue selling to when the 2012 Olympiad is but a memory.Power systems developer Rolls-Royce releases an interim management statement where the hot topic could be the company's new partnership with Pratt & Whitney to develop engines to power future mid-size aircraft which hold between 120 and 230 passengers. "The new collaboration brings together complementary technological resources and is designed to offer the best, most competitive response to customer demand for the next generation powerplant in the mid-size segment," Rolls said in a statement last month.The collaboration coincided with a decision by Rolls-Royce to dispose of its interest in International Aero Engines (IAE) - a joint venture between Pratt & Whitney (a United Technologies Corp company), MTU Aero Engines (MTU) and Japanese Aero Engine Corporation (JAEC) - to Pratt & Whitney for $1.5bn, in addition to further payments for every hour IAE engines are flown over the next 15 years.The deal represents a substantial change of direction for Britain's flagship engineering company, but $1.5bn dropping into the coffers never goes down badly, and the markets were highly appreciative of the deals.INTERIMSHornbyINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEAll Leisure Group, Cenkos Securities, Cobham, Corin Group, Huntsworth, Johnson Service Group, Just Car Clinics Group, Kerry Group 'A' Shares, Kingfisher, Maven Income & Growth 2 VCT, Petropavlovsk, Rightmove, S & U, Spectris, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Staffline Group, Unite Group, Walker GreenbankQUARTERLY PAYMENT DATEBritish Land Co, Merchants TrustQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATELilly (Eli) & CoINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSU. of Michigan Confidence (Prelim) (US) (15:00)Q3Grupo Clarin SA GDR (Reg S), Telefonica SAFINALSCarr's Milling IndustriesIMSSRolls-Royce Group, SpectrisSPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATETR European Growth TrustAGMSGalliford Try, GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd.UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSProducer Price Index (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEDaejan Holdings, Jupiter Primadona Growth Trust, TR European Growth Trust--jh Rolls-Royce