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Pubs operator JD Wetherspoon (JDW) has a reputation for pursuing sales at the expense of profit margins. In the long term this can make sense because it's good to get sales in the bag and profits can arrive later. The trouble is that institutional investors - notoriously short-termist - don't necessarily think that way, a factor that may hit Wetherspoon's share price, which is already showing signs of weakness. Wetherspoon has seen a marked slip in operating margins in recent years (see chart), and broker Liberum Capital forecasts that profitability will slump to a 20-year low in 2012-13. To date, the market has been fairly forgiving - in the past year Wetherspoon's share price is up 24 per cent compared with 30 per cent from the FTSE 350 Travel & Leisure sector overall; and since its low point in May it has outperformed the sector, rising 35 per cent compared with 33 per cent.

"We look forward to working closely with our trade association partners." He said Brazil is among the largest food producers and exporters in the world, forecast to account for 40% of growth in the industry through to 2030. Brazil's agriculture sector's full value chain represents close to 20% of the country's gross domestic product. The 2010/11 crop grew 8.2% year-on-year, including a 3.2% increase in planted area and a 4.2% increase in productivity. The market value of the crop was estimated at more than $100bn. Rigby said Agrishow is in line with Informa's deep roots in the agricultural and food industries through publications, conferences and exhibitions.

Events group Informa has been awarded a 30-year licence to run agriculture fair Agrishow in Brazil, including this year's show in April. Agrishow is the largest agricultural exhibition in Latin America, attracting about 800 exhibitors and more than 150,000 visitors. This year's event will mark the 20th edition of the show. "I am delighted that Informa has been awarded the contract to manage Latin America's largest agricultural trade show, Agrishow," Chief Executive Peter Rigby said.

Meanwhile, the companies have signed an agreement to give Sky Movies the first subscription pay-TV movie rights in the UK and Ireland to other Disney titles. "The launch of Sky Movies Disney is great news for our customers and builds on the strong relationship that Sky and Disney have enjoyed for more than 20 years," said Sky's Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch. "We're delighted that an entertainment company of Disney's international stature has chosen to work with Sky on its first co-branded linear movie channel. This is a world-first collaboration that will excite millions of families and further strengthen our market-leading movies service."

Pay-TV and broadband group British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) is looking to take advantage of the school holidays at Easter with the launch of its new Sky Movies Disney channel next month. The company said on Thursday that it has agreed with Disney to launch the new channel in the UK and Ireland on March 28th, which will be home exclusively to newly-released Disney and Disney/Pixar films, as well as a library of older titles. In its first pay-TV window, Sky Movies Disney will be showing recent hits such as Brave, Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings and Wreck-It Ralph. While the latter is still on at the cinema, BSkyB said that new movie titles will be available on the channel from around six months after they have finished showing at movie theatres. BSkyB, which already runs a Disney channel through Sky, said that this is the first time that Disney has been involved in a co-branded linear movie channel.

He concluded: "These good results underpin my confidence in our ability to achieve our target of 100m Bus operating profit by 2015/16." Full-year outlook While the company said that full-year results would be broadly in line with current forecasts, operating profits at the Bus division are expected to be "slightly higher than management's previous expectations" while Rail profits will be "slightly below". Go-Ahead said that the second half of the year is expected to remain "challenging" for the Rail division, mainly due to weakness to the Southern franchise, one of its three rail franchises. "There has been weakness across the network and we are working closely with Network Rail to help improve performance. We expect the franchise to remain profitable this financial year and a cost efficiency programme has been introduced in preparation for entering revenue support in September 2013."

Revenue rose 8.1 per cent to 1,296.6m pounds in the six months ending December 29th compared to the same period in 2012 at FTSE 250-listed bus and train operator Go-Ahead, with both the Bus and Rail divisions showing growth. However, pre-tax profit contracted 1.8% to �43.2m over the corresponding time frames. Operating profit fell 1.0% to �51.2m, while the operating profit margin slipped from 4.3% to 3.9%. While profits in Rail remained weak, the company managed to grow its bottom line in the Bus division with operating profit rising by 5.4% to �37.1m in spite of "significant" fuel cost headwinds. It expects Bus to contribute a greater proportion of earnings for the full year. The company maintained its half-year dividend at 25.5p. David Brown, Group Chief Executive of Go-Ahead, commented: "I am pleased to report a good set of results for the first half of the financial year. Our focus on running high quality, convenient services and our industry leading marketing strategy have continued to attract more passengers on to our value for money services.

Chief Executive Officer Joep van Beurden said: "2012 has seen CSR accelerate its transformation, becoming a leader in integrated and differentiated technology platforms in several growing market segments. The growth of our Core business has been especially pleasing with strong growth in Voice & Music and a solid performance by Auto." "In 2013, we will continue to invest to develop our platforms in our five chosen markets of Auto, Voice & Music, Imaging, Bluetooth Smart and Indoors Location, which we believe hold good growth potential," he added. CSR also highlighted strong mono audio revenue growth in China in the wake of hands-free driving legislation.

Shares of wireless technology firm CSR stormed ahead after it posted record full year revenue and underlying gross margin, boosted its dividend payment and said it expects good growth in core revenues for 2013. The chip firm said revenue for the fourth quarter to December 28th rose to $249.2m from $244.0m the same time a year earlier after strong growth in Voice & Music and a solid performance by Auto. The group posted a profit of $10.3m during the quarter compared to a loss of $4.9m a year earlier. Underlying core gross margin increased to 59.2% during the final quarter from 55.8%. Looking ahead the group said: "We expect first quarter revenues to be in the range of $215m to $235m." Underlining its confidence in future trading, CSR has increased its full year dividend by 15% to $0.08 per ordinary share. CSR is also proposing to return $50m to shareholders via a share buyback.

Outlook looks bright The company said that 2013 has had a "promising start" with group net revenue (excluding High Rollers) up 7.2% in the first six weeks. "We are continuing to transform Ladbrokes, with the resilience and reinvigoration of the UK Retail estate driving another year of growth in profit per shop. The development of the Digital business is progressing well and our investment in trading systems is generating improved quality of earnings," said Chief Executive Richard Glynn. Digital revenues and earnings in 2013 are expected to be helped by the roll-out of the new sportsbook and mobile platforms in the first half, after delays during 2012. Glynn said that Ladbrokes will continue to drive investment in 2013 by accelerating its shop openings programme and focusing on areas of unmet demand. In spite of the solid outlook, shares were down 2.16% at 226p in early trading on Thursday, after an impressive 30% rise over the last six months.

High Street betting shop Ladbrokes registered record retail revenues in the UK last year, while the company said it has had 'promising' start to 2013. "Favourable" sporting results in the final quarter underpinned record UK Retail net revenue of 739.5m in 2012, up 8.2% year-on-year. Revenues in its Digital division, which comprises betting and gaming online and from mobiles, rose 9.0% to 178.1m. Total group revenue increased by 7.4% from 980m.3m to 1,053.3m last year. Meanwhile, pre-tax profit surged by 49.1% from 134.6m to 200.7m, while underlying earnings per share rose 20.3% to 18.4p. The full-year dividend was raised by 14.1% from 7.8p a share to 8.9p a share. Net debt dropped by 14.8% over the period to 386.9m, while cash generated by operations rose 17.8% to 283.2m.

"This arrangement offers us a flexible approach to managing the key risk of longevity in the plan. We are particularly pleased that we were able to complete the process in a structured and straightforward fashion within six months."

FTSE 250-listed financial services company Legal & General has put in place a longevity insurance arrangement for defence and aerospace company BAE Systems' 2000 Pension Plan. The deal is the largest such arrangement ever completed in the UK. The arrangement insures the plan against the financial risk of its 31,000 current pensioners living longer than expected, covering a total of £2.7bn of liabilities as measured by the plan, or £3.2bn discounted at LIBOR. Legal & General will retain 30% of the longevity risk, with the remainder being reinsured by Hannover Re. Nigel Tinsley, Group Pensions Director at BAE Systems, said: "We are pleased to have worked with Legal & General and Aon Hewitt to develop this innovative approach to managing risk exposure within the BAE Systems 2000 Pension Plan.

Net debt rose to 193.9m dollars on January 31st from 96.2m dollars at the end of the preceding quarter at software and information technology business Micro Focus International. In an interim management statement for the period from October 31st to February 21st, the company reported that trading had been "in line with management expectations". It described an adverse movement in currency rates in the period compared to the same period last year such that the year-to-date currency impact was broadly neutral as compared to a $3.6m currency gain last year. The company said that the return of value to shareholders of 50p per share totalling $130m together with the interim dividend of 7.4p per share at a cost of $18m.

"As such, Filtrona is well-positioned to deliver further balanced growth in 2013 and to continue to make progress towards its Vision 2015 objectives of at least mid single-digit like-for-like revenue growth and double-digit adjusted EPS growth at constant exchange." The group stressed that ongoing volume leverage, operational initiatives and successful pricing programmes to mitigate input cost increases were largely offset by the dilutive mix impact of the revenue growth in the lower margin Filter Products division, which saw a 16.9% increase in its like-for-like revenue. On actual exchange rates this was 12.3%. Operating profit in the division rose 18% on actual exchange rates to 28.9m, while the operating margin rose 60bps to 12.4%. Elsewhere, revenue in the Coasting & Security Products division climbed 17.5% to 85.3m on actual exchange rates, while Porous Technologies grew 10.1% to 85.8m on the same basis. Protection & Finishing Products rose 45.8% to 237.7m, while 'Other' fell 8.6%. Net cash and equivalents at the end of the year came in at 41.4m, up from 35.8m a year earlier.

Plastic and fibre group Filtrona posted a leap in both revenue and adjusted pre-tax profit for 2012 on Wednesday, boosted by growth in its Filter Products and prompting a 19 per cent increase to the dividend per share. Revenue for the year came in at 663.4m, compared to 540.7m, up 23% at actual exchange rates and 26% at constant. Pre-tax profit, adjusted to exclude the impact of acquisitions, disposals and foreign exchange, climbed 26% from 76.2m to 95.8m. The dividend per share was increased from 10.5p to 12.5p. Basic earnings per share (from continuing operations) totalled 25p, up 5.0p from 2011. The gross margin rose 20 basis points (bps) (+10bps at constant FX) to 35.9%. Colin Day, Chief Executive said: "With like-for-like revenue up 11% and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) growth of 30% at constant exchange in 2012, Filtrona continued to make excellent progress towards its Vision 2015 objectives. "Our results were supported by successful new product development, range expansion and geographic roll-out, and were underpinned by further investment, organisational changes and a more focused commercial structure. The integration of recent acquisitions continues to proceed well, with synergy delivery in line with expectations.

"Sales volumes recovered into the second quarter and this, in turn, saw some price recovery in certain of the group's major grades going into the second half of the year. "The third quarter was impacted by the traditional European summer slowdown in trading, but a strong finish to the year, with good volumes and reasonable price levels in Europe, meant the group was able to deliver full year underlying operating profit of €568m, 9.0% down on the very strong prior year result."

Profit before tax contracted 19 per cent to 371m euros in the full year ending December 31st at paper and packaging group Mondi, an interim management statement has shown. Group revenue rose 1.0% to €5.8bn while underlying operating profit dropped 9.0% to €568m. Basic earnings per share slid 3.0% to 69.6 cents. The total dividend per share rose 8.0% to 28 cents. The group return on capital employed contracted to 13.7% from 15%. In a financial outlook issued by the company, the group reported: "While the first quarter was particularly difficult, characterised by a continuation of the weak order books seen towards the end of 2011, trading picked up as the year progressed.

He explained that the thermal coal business had suffered from what the group understood was a "temporary regional oversupply", given relatively mild winter weather conditions as well as the wider economic slowdown in the company's local thermal coal markets. Strategic outlook: Safety and increasing salesThe group reported that it had undertaken a strategic review of the business and decided on a number of objectives for the years through to 2017. By 2017, the group said it wants to rank as one of the top five global leaders in safety in deep underground coal mining. It intends to double European coking sales to 10m tonnes per annum through a mixture of mining projects and marketing initiatives and market its coking coal qualities to become a one-stop shop' for European steel customers and it wants to rank as one of the top five global leaders in safety in deep underground coal mining.

Revenue contracted 20% year-on-year to €1.3bn while operating profit plunged 80% to €56m. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) - a frequently used measure of company operating profits - tumbled 51% to €223m. Total assets declined 7.0% to €2.2bn and cash and equivalents were down 50% to €267m. Chairman Penny said that the continued pricing pressures during the year led to the 30% decline in the price of coking coal year-on-year in the group's coking coal business. He said: "We expect coking coal prices to continue to improve during 2013 after a slight uptick in the first quarter 2013, as significant volumes of less competitive global coking coal supply went offline in 2012, and projects that would have brought new supply on stream in the long-term are either delayed or abandoned."