Companies reporting next week

AIRLINES and oil, telecoms and media companies are among the heavyweights set to hit the corporate headlines next week.

British Airways' third-quarter profits should show a sharp improvement on Monday, lifting to around £100m from £25m last time, as conditions improve in the aviation sector. Even so, the figure for the nine months, excluding disposals, is expected to come in at £197m against £287m in the same period in 2002/3.

BA said this week that security issues were still having an adverse impact on its forward bookings, with passenger traffic in January this year standing at 3.5% - lower than the 5.3% recorded for the third quarter as a whole. Investors and unions are likely to listen out for details on how the company plans to achieve its recently announced £300m staff-cost reduction target between next year and 2006.

Analysts are tipping oil group BP to notch up a 12.2% increase in fourth-quarter profits to $2.95bn (£1.6bn) on Tuesday. Net income is expected to benefit from the strong operating environment and the inclusion of TNK-BP, the group's Moscow-based joint venture selling crude extracted from former Soviet oil fields.

TNK is expected to be the main contributor to the group's strong volume growth during the period, which is forecast to be about 8%. Taking TNK out of the equation leaves volume growth only slightly positive, stockbroker Gerrard said. The company is expected to provide some further guidance on capital spending for the current year, which is tipped to rise.

Third-quarter results from telecoms group BT are expected to continue the trend of weaker year-on-year revenues growth on Thursday. The group, which has been hit by the impact of new entrants into its core market, will be under pressure from analysts to show that it is tackling the weakness with cost controls and the development of new services.

While stockbroker Gerrard expects turnover to fall by 2% - driven by lower fixed-line income - the pre-tax profits figure is likely to improve by £16m to £537m because of lower interest costs on its reduced net debt.

British Gas-to-AA group Centrica should report pre-tax profits close to the £1bn mark - up on £870m a year earlier - when it unveils results for the year to 31 December on Thursday. Factors helping the performance are likely to include higher profits from Centrica's North American energy business, as well as the AA breakdown operation and reduced losses from the company's telecoms arm.

This progress will be partly offset by warmer weather affecting the performance of Centrica's UK residential gas and electricity business. Given the group's high cash generation, analysts will be looking for clues about the likelihood of future acquisition and prospects for a higher dividend ratio.

Comments from Rolls-Royce on its outlook will be closely watched on Thursday when the engines giant posts full-year results - expected to show an improvement in pre-tax profits to £268m from £255m. Analysts will be hoping Rolls reports signs of a pick-up in the civil aerospace market, although the company has managed to offset weakness in this sector by the successful development of higher margin after-sales.

The results announcement, which is likely to have been affected by the weakness of the US dollar, will also be watched for an update on pension funding after the company struck an agreement with unions in December.

BSkyB could cheer investors by paying them a dividend for the first time in five years when it announces its interim results on Wednesday. The satellite broadcaster, which is expected to say it has more than doubled pre-tax profits from £99m to £240m, has completed all the legal arrangements to allow it to resume dividend payments this year, including obtaining High Court clearance and investment status, analysts say.

The group's improving financial position should also help, with the pay-TV company expected to say that strong cash flows have bolstered its balance sheet. Subscriber numbers could be up to 7.2m and those with SkyPlus may rise to 250,000 after strong promotion since October last year.