INVESTORS are braced for disappointing news on Wednesday when publisher Johnston Press is due to update them on current prospects for its regional titles that include The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post.
The group had previously held out hopes that its advertising markets could return to growth in the closing months of this year but industry experts fear that any rally may have proved to be short lived.
"Johnston shares have slumped to seven-year lows in the stock market, which tells its own story," said one broker. "I would expect chief executive Tim Bowdler to confirm that revenue may have been bumping along at just above previously depressed levels but that a sustained recovery still lies some way in the future."
Analysts at Seymour Pierce and Goldman Sachs have jumped the gun on the statement by forecasting a further 3% fall in Johnston's print advertising sales in 2008 although they say the shares are now worth buying after their fall from a 2007 peak of 491p to around 247.5p.
This year's profits are expected to dip further from £147 million to around £135m before exceptional items but followers still expect an improvement to £142m 2008, helped by an increased contribution from contract printing and internet sales.
At current levels the group has a stock market value of just more than £700m, which is well short of the £1 billion it has spent on acquisitions over the past five years, including the Scotsman series (£160m), Local Press (£65m), Leinster Leader (£94m), Score Press (£155m) and Regional Independent Media (£560m).
Followers believe that any potential takeover predators would be deterred by immediate trading prospects as well as the current crisis in debt markets, although Johnston's own borrowings of some £730m would not need to be refinanced until at least 2011 and interest payments are covered comfortably by earnings.
Lloyds TSB, owner of Scottish Widows, is expected to disclose it has escaped fairly lightly from the debts crisis tomorrow when it is due to update shareholders in the wake of the billions of pounds of write-offs declared by rivals at HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and others.
Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods believe its total cost could be as little as £150m to cover its exposure to the danger areas of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and structure investment vehicles (SIVs), while the team at Exane BNP Paribas believe its treasury operations could actually benefit from the turmoil elsewhere.
Most analysts look for substantially unchanged profits of around £4.2bn for the full year. Bank of Scotland and Halifax owner HBOS is believed to have still less exposure to the crisis over US debts, although analysts will expect an update on the fragile state of the housing market across much of the UK when directors make their trading statement on Thursday.
Despite an anticipated slowdown on this side of the business and concerns about the high levels of consumer debt, analysts polled by Hemscott still expect to hear the Edinburgh bank is comfortable with its forecasts for a profits increase from £5.7bn to £5.8bn for the full year.
Confectioner Cadbury is expected to deliver a confident statement on Tuesday following a leaked memo that claimed a "staggering" increase in sales of Dairy Box as a result of a TV ad campaign featuring a drum-playing gorilla.
Shareholders are also looking for further news on plans to demerge the group's American beverages operation after the breakdown of a previous move because of the capital market crisis.
Analysts say that the beverages business could fetch upwards of £6bn on a flotation compared with the group's total stock market value of around £13.4bn.
Plant hire group Ashtead, which has seen its shares halve in value this year, is expected to announce on Tuesday that half-year profits have climbed from £54m to around £71m before taking account of special items, due to a robust commercial property market.
Sir Bob Geldof's Ten Alps media company, which owns Teachers TV and has been investing heavily in internet productions, is expected to deliver a confident trading update on Tuesday with brokers at Collins Stewart looking for an increase in yearly profits from £2.3m to £3.6m or more.
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