Companies reporting next week

WITH the Easter holidays looming, some of the London market's smaller companies will take their turn in the spotlight next week.

Hand dryers to office pot plants group PHS said in December that it was on the lookout for further acquisitions after completing a £100m investment strategy a year ahead of schedule.

A trading update on Wednesday may offer details of how successful the Caerphilly-based group has been in identifying potential targets and also profits expectations for the year to March 31, which the market expects to be around £43m compared with £36m a year ago.

Analysts will also be hoping for continued growth in its washroom services division, which accounts for 73% of revenues, and an improvement in its Greenleaf plants business, after a fall in half-year turnover due to 'a cyclical downturn' in the market.

Department stores group James Beattie has suffered a difficult 12 months with flat festive sales and the opening of the new Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham putting pressure on its city centre store there.

Investors will therefore search the outlook statement in the company's full-year results on Wednesday for indications that the retail environment is improving and expectations of future dividend payments.

Wolverhampton-based Beattie, which has 12 outlets around the UK, is expected to post pre-tax profits of £4.8m for the year to January 31 against £7m a year ago, although store openings should push revenues higher than the £141.6m recorded last year.

Housebuilder Bellway is likely to delight the market on Tuesday by posting interim profits at the top end of expectations after increasing the number of homes sold over the past six months by 10.4% and average selling prices by 6.5% on a year ago.

Analysts are predicting the Newcastle-based company will post pre-tax profits of £69m for the year to January 31, compared with £57.1m a year ago, putting it on track for an eighth consecutive year of record results.

Bellway may reveal that it has reached its sales target for the current year on the back of strong trading across all its operations and that the rate of growth in new orders has at least been maintained at 17.5% on last year.

Industrial components group Brammer should have a spring in its step on Wednesday after finally completing the sale of its telecoms equipment business Livingston for £9.9 million.

The move has enabled Cheshire-based Brammer to focus on its core business, which provides industrial consumables - such as bearings and chains - to customers in 10 European countries.

Work on cost-cutting should push Wednesday's 2003 pre-tax profits figure to £6.6m, from £6m last time, as Brammer now prepares for a major assault on eastern Europe markets. It currently has 232 branch locations, including more than 100 in the UK.

Magazines group Highbury House Communications has undergone a period of change after acquiring consumer-based publishers Cabal and Paragon in the last year.

Annual profits on Tuesday are likely to fall to £7.3m - from £9.8m last year - as tough trading conditions and restructuring costs for its non-core business-to-business division take their toll.

Despite the fall, Highbury is likely to tell investors that it is in better shape following the business-to-business overhaul, while prospects for its recently acquired operations appear strong. Titles in the consumer division include FastCar magazine and What Satellite & Digital TV.