LONDON (ShareCast) - Thursday sees simultaneous final results from merging electronics retailers Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail, which are planning to become Dixons Carphone.

Analysts are not expecting much eye-poppingly interesting, as the companies' management teams are playing these results in a low-key manner after all the merger excitement since the announcement of the deal in mid-May.

Both companies are expected to provide the details around figures flagged up in their fourth quarter updates and give reassurance on the current-year outlook for both companies on a free-standing basis.

Dixons is expected to generate earnings of 2.8p-3p per share on sharply declining revenue of £7.46bn, while Carphone earnings are expected at 18.1p per share on declining revenue of £3.43bn.

However, Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets, recently suggested that results will be key to seeing how receptive investors are to the newly created ‘Dixons Carphone’.

He said prelims from the pair will give a good indication which one of two main reasons for the merger, 'cost and price synergies' or 'to defend against online competitors', was the more important.

Damning both companies for having "out-dated business models", he said earnings missing expectations could see the market interpreting the merger is more defensive, "i.e. two companies with out-dated business models hoping the increased size will buy them more time".

On the other hand, he said: "Earnings better than expected could paint the alternative picture that the two companies have turned around the recent slump and a merger would see the newly-formed group greater than the sum of its already growing parts."

Interest elsewhere from Safestore and Wood

Interims from Safestore Holdings are expected to see total revenue come in up around 2% year-on-year, according to broker Numis, largely reflecting the removal of the drag from the impact of the introduction of VAT on UK self-storage from October 2012.

A placing earlier this year reduced leverage to a more appropriate level, the analyst said, "so the focus of the results is expected to be on operational performance rather than the balance sheet".

A trading statement from oil and gas engineer Wood Group, which last updated the market on May 14th, is not expected to generate any material changes to outlook in just a month's trading.

On the whole, early-year performance was slightly ahead of expectations, apart from the GTS turbine repair division being adversely impacted by delays at the Dorad Energy project.

Numis continues to expect operating profit growth over the full year, with growth in the PSN segment offsetting a decline in the Engineering division due to lumpy front-end engineering design (FEED) contract wins.


Schedule Thursday June 26th

INTERIMS
Pinnacle Technology Group, Safestore Holdings

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Compass Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Royal Dutch Shell 'B'

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
Personal Consumption Expenditures (US) (13:30)
Personal Income (US) (13:30)
Personal Spending (US) (13:30)

FINALS
600 Group, Cohort, Dixons Retail, Carphone Warehouse, Latham (James), Science In Sport, Smith (DS)

ANNUAL REPORT
Cranswick

EGMS
Petroceltic International

AGMS
Aberdeen New Thai Inv Trust, Amati VCT , Amati Vct 2, Atlantic Coal, Blackrock Hedge Selector Ltd. Red Part Shs (UK Emerging Co Shs), Bond International Software, Brightside Group, Cadogan Petroleum, Condor Gold, Crawshaw Group, Diamondcorp, Eden Research, Exillon Energy, Flowgroup, Gusbourne, Helios Underwriting, Investors In Global Real Estate Ltd, JD Sports Fashion, JSC Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant GDR (Reg S), Lukoil 'B' GDR (Reg S), Metals Exploration, Mobile Tornado Group, NMC Health, Orsu Metals Corp., Pactolus Hungarian Property, Petroceltic International, Phaunos Timber Fund Ltd., Porta Communications , Puma Vct 8, Puma VCT 9, Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust, Serica Energy, Sovereign Mines of Africa, Taliesin Property Fund Limited, Tiger Resource Finance, Volvere, Xtract Resources

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
British American Inv Trust, Moss Bros Group, Tongaat-Hulett Ltd.

OH

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