Companies reporting next week

BROADCASTER

A strong set of third quarter figures published in May should have put satellite and digital TV group BSkyB on course for a positive finish when it reports full year results on Tuesday.

Trading profits are forecast to have risen from £273m to £439m.

While the success of free-to-air digital service Freeview could have had an impact on Sky Digital subscriptions, analysts at stockbroker Gerrard still expect subscriber numbers to have risen to more than 6.8m by the end of June, putting it within touching distance of its target of seven million by the end of 2003.

Alongside further comment on the live Premiership football rights deal announced today, investors will be looking for guidance on future subscriber number targets.

Cable operator NTL will hope to use second quarter results on Tuesday to show it is heading in the right direction after completing a complex financial restructuring in the United States earlier this year.

Average revenue per user and customer churn rate - the proportion of customers deserting the business - will be key measures for the group, which said in May it had made a 'fast start' after emerging from bankruptcy protection.

No recent analysts' forecasts have been published for the New York-listed group, which has around 2.7m domestic customers, including more than 650,000 internet broadband users.

The UK's largest estate agency group, Countrywide Assured, which reports first half results on Thursday, has made no secret of the fact that the effects of uncertainty in the run-up to the Iraq war have hit it hard.

The company heaped more gloom on investors in June with news that demand for houses remained weak, coupled with a further deterioration in its life assurance arm which, in common with rivals, has suffered from the effects of falling stock markets.

Based on comments from the company, the market is expecting house sales volumes to be as much as 30% lower than last year.

But expectations are low - analysts have slashed pre-tax profits forecasts to just £20m, compared with last year's £35.8m, and say an upbeat assessment of the state of the market would give the stock a much-needed boost.

Ports and ferries group P&O is not expected to offer many surprises with its second quarter trading update on Wednesday published alongside results from container shipping company P&O Nedlloyd, in which the group holds a 50% stake.

A pre-close update in June highlighted strong growth in container volumes, with organic growth above 20% year-on-year, but a weaker showing from its ferries arm with lower volumes in the tourist market.

After a three-yearly valuation of its main UK pension scheme, the company will also take a £5m accounting charge in relation to an estimated deficit. City analysts are forecasting full-year pre-tax profits of around £117m.

Construction company Balfour Beatty, which is due to issue half-year results on Wednesday, posted a 16% rise in underlying profits last year after it benefited from a number of large scale projects, including electrification work on the West Coast Main Line modernisation scheme.

The company should report further growth this week, with underlying profits up to around £43m from £40m a year earlier, stockbroker Fyshe said. Recent contracts secured have included construction of a proposed £87m railway station at Heathrow Terminal 5. Balfour also has a strong roads division, which secured £175m of additional work from the Highways Agency last year.

Motor retailer CD Bramall should reap the benefit of stronger-than-expected demand for new car registrations when it reports interim results on Tuesday. Broker Arbuthnot expects the company, which has annual turnover in excess of £1.5 billion, to comfortably beat a City forecast in March of pre-tax profits of £15.5m - up on the £13.4m seen a year earlier.

Guidance for the rest of year will be keenly watched, but industry figures already suggest the second half of the year has started strongly for CD Bramall, which is based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.