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Tuesday preview: Wood Group and Betfair

Mon, 05th Mar 2012 18:41

Oilfield services behemoth Wood Group is set to release full year results, hot on the heels of sector peer Petrofac, which pleased the market with its figures on Monday.The market is expecting Wood to produce profit before tax of £251.3m on revenue of £4.1bn. Earnings per share are tipped to rise to 50.63p and the dividend is seen increasing to 11.54p. Checking the accuracy of those predictions will require a calculator and the latest dollar exchange rate, however, as the company announces its figures in US dollars.The Scottish firm had a good February, bagging several contracts, which will have raised morale at the company after it admitted back in December that its Wood Group PSN unit, formed after the company bought fellow Aberdonian outfit Production Services Network (PSN) in January 2011 for £600m, had lost two big contracts.Analysts will be looking for an update on how integration at Wood Group PSN is proceeding. Most other units at the time of the December update seemed to be firing on all cylinders. Since floating in the second half of last year things have been far from smooth for online betting exchange Betfair, which seems to have had more than its fair share of management upheavals recently. As a result of this the group has some bridges to repair in the City but Peel Hunt thinks the consistency of Betfair's key performance indicators (KPIs) over the last few quarters will have made analysts more receptive to the idea of giving the company a fair shake.Tuesday's KPI's cover the group's third quarter, and Peel Hunt thinks the firm will show good revenue growth. In mid-December Betfair said the quarter had got off to a good start, with core Betfair revenue up 13% against the prior year.Peel Hunt does not think the company will have been able to keep up that sort of top line growth for the duration of the quarter, but thinks the growth rate should still be around 10%. "This [growth] is all likely to come from sport, and the exchange product in particular," Peel Hunt reckons.INTERIMSInterior Services Group, St IvesINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSPMI Construction (GER) (08:55)Q3Ashtead GroupQ4First Quantum Minerals Ltd.FINALSCape, Cupid, First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Fisher (James) & Sons, Hydro International, Inmarsat, John Menzies, Macfarlane Group, Meggitt, Michael Page International, MyCelx Technologies Corporation (Reg S), Omega Insurance Holdings Ltd. (DI), Oxford Biomedica, Pace, SQS Software Quality Systems AG, Total Produce, Tullett Prebon, Ubisense Group Plc, Wood Group (John), ZotefoamsIMSSBetfair GroupAGMSCatco Reinsurance Opps. Fd (DI), CQS Rig Finance Fund Ltd., Environ Group (Investments) , Jersey Electricity 'A' Shares, Local Shopping REITUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBRC Sales Monitor (00:01)jh

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