LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: Vodafone Profit Rises As CEO Set To Depart

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower on Tuesday ahead of UK wage and unemployment data later in the morning at 0930 BST.In early UK company news on Tuesday, Vodafone reported growth in annual earnings above guidance and announced Chief Executive Vittorio Colao will stand down later this year. Land Securities slipped to a pretax loss, and easyJet hailed an "excellent" first-half performance."After seven weeks of gains European equity markets got off to a subdued start to the week, despite rising optimism that the US and China appear to be making progress on their protracted trade negotiations," says CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.US President Donald Trump over the weekend said he is working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to assist Chinese telecom giant ZTE, which has been crippled by a ban on US supplies to its business.The tweet from Trump comes as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is due to travel to Washington this week to meet with the president's economic team.US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday that Washington will consider during the visit "alternative remedies" to the ban on US companies doing business with ZTE.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 22.38 points lower at 7,688.60 on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.2%, or 13.57 points, at 7,710.98 on Monday.Telecommunications firm Vodafone said annual earnings growth came in above guidance, and said its CEO will step down later this year.Total revenue was down 2.2% to EUR46.6 billion, "primarily due to the deconsolidation of Vodafone Netherlands and FX movements". Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 12% on an organic basis to EUR14.73 billion from EUR14.15 billion.The Ebitda growth was above the company's revised guidance range of around 10%, while free cash flow pre-spectrum came in at EUR5.6 billion, delivering on its target to exceed EUR5 billion.Pretax profit rose to EUR3.88 billion for the year ended March 31 from EUR2.79 billion last year.The blue-chip firm declared a final dividend of 10.23 cents, up 2.0%, bringing its total payout for the year to 15.07 cents compared to last year's 14.77 cents."We expect to sustain our profit growth in the year ahead, despite the arrival of a new entrant in Italy and competitive pressure in Spain, supported by the third year in a row of lower net operating costs," said Chief Executive Vittorio Colao.Looking ahead, Vodafone expects to grow adjusted organic Ebitda by 1% to 5%, excluding the impact of UK handset financing in both years, and the significant benefit in the prior year from regulatory settlements in the UK and a legal settlement in Germany. Based on guidance FX rates, and under IAS18 accounting standards, this implies an adjusted Ebitda range of EUR14.15 billion to EUR14.65 billion for the year. Separately, Vodafone said effective October 2018, CEO Colao will be succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Nick Read. Colao was appointed CEO in July 2008.At the firm's annual general meeting on July 27, Deputy CFO Margherita Della Valle will succeed Read as CFO and will join the board, while Read will become CEO-designate.Fellow FTSE 100 constituent Land Securities said it had an "active and successful year", though it slipped to a pretax loss.Total revenue came in at GBP852 million, up from GBP787 million last year, as it swung to a pretax loss of GBP251 million for the year ended March 31 from a GBP112 million profit.The company recommended a final dividend of 14.65p per share, bringing its total payout for the year to 44.2p, up from 38.55p last year.The real estate investment trust saw an ungeared total property return of 4.3% in the period, underperforming the IPD Quarterly Universe's 10.1%."As the UK prepares for its exit from the EU, we are navigating uncertain waters in the near term and we expect investment and leasing volumes in the property market to be more subdued. We are prepared for this uncertainty with conservative gearing and a development exposure," said Chief Executive Robert Noel.Support services company DCC said total revenue for the year to March 31 rose to GBP14.26 billion from GBP12.27 billion, as pretax profit climbed to GBP260.2 million from GBP248.5 million. Excluding exceptional items, pretax profit rose to GBP305.0 million from GBP274.7 million. The company raised its total dividend by 10% to 122.98p from 11.80p.DCC said it expects its current financial year will be "another year of profit growth and development". Low-cost airline easyJet said it saw a strong first-half performance, help by a positive trading environment, capacity reduction from other airlines, and the timing of Easter.Total revenue came in at GBP2.18 billion for the six months to March 31, from GBP1.83 billion last year, as its pretax loss narrowed to GBP68 million from GBP236 million.Headline pretax profit excluding new operatings at Berlin's Tegel airport was GBP8 million, compared to last year's loss of GBP212 million.easyJet expects a headline pretax loss for the year to September 30 - including the impact of a headline loss from Tegel - to be in the range of GBP530 million to GBP580 million."easyJet has delivered an excellent performance reporting a profit of £8 million, one of our best results ever in the winter trading period (excluding the one-off impact of the start-up of our Tegel operation)," said Chief Executive Johan Lundgren."I have today announced an increase in investment in easyJet Holidays to gain a greater share of that market, showcased a series of initiatives to increase the number of passengers travelling on business and revealed plans to introduce a new loyalty programme," Lundgren added.Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown said it saw net new business of GBP3.3 billion in the four month to April 30, with year-to-date net new business of GBP6.6 billion. The company had assets under administration of GBP88.8 billion as at April 30.Year-to-date total net revenue of GBP366.6 million was up 16%, Hargreaves said.Chief Executive Chris Hill said the company had "another good tax year end".In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.3%, the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite closing 0.1% higher.In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is flat, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.1%.Released early Tuesday, China's National Bureau of Statistics said industrial production was up 7.0% on year in April, beating expectations for a 6.4% increase and up from 6.0% in March.The bureau also said that retail sales advanced an annual 9.4%, though this missed forecasts for a 10.0% rise and was down from 10.1% in the previous month.Germany's economic growth halved in the first quarter, data from Destatis showed Tuesday. Gross domestic product grew 0.3% sequentially, slower than the 0.6% expansion seen in the previous quarter. GDP was expected to climb at a slightly faster pace of 0.4%.Nonetheless, Destatis said this was the 15th quarter-on-quarter growth in a row, contributing to the longest upswing phase since 1991.Still to come in Tuesday's economic calendar, eurozone first quarter GDP readings are at 1000 BST. Headlining the calendar in the UK, average earnings, the ILO unemployment rate and claimant count are all due at 0930 BST.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3545 early Tuesday ahead of the data, down from USD1.3584 at the London equities close on Monday."The pound has been hammered over the last month after a streak of weak economic data and a dovish BoE quarterly inflation report, resulting in the central bank opting to sit on the side-lines and wait for more data to see whether the UK's recent soft patch was temporary or a more concerning structural problem," says Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group."The UK jobs report come against a back drop of weak data and a dovish BoE. Whilst the report is expected to show unemployment remained at multi-decade lows of 4.2%, the main focus will be on wages growth," Lawler adds.Average earnings growth including bonus is seen slipping to 2.6% for the three months to March, compared to last month's 2.8%. Excluding bonus, average earnings are set to improve to 2.9% from 2.8%.Tuesday's report comes after the Bank of England last week kept rates on hold, as widely expected, and lowered its growth forecast for this year down to 1.4% from 1.8%.