ANALYSTS are expecting the usual healthy figures from Asda this week, when the supermarket giant reports its full year results on Thursday.
The country's third-biggest supermarket chain is understood to be keen to make a deal taking it further up the food retail ladder and, after talks with Kingfisher were called off last month, the City will be looking for hints of another possible deal in the pipeline.
Merger talks with Kingfisher would have led to the second biggest retailing operation after Marks & Spencer. They were called off, however, in the preliminary stages and, despite widespread speculation some sort of deal could still be on the cards, both parties have been tight-lipped.
Asda has also been linked to supermarket rival Safeway. One analyst said that, given the range of people it is prepared to talk to, the company is obviously desperate to make some sort of deal to help catch up with its ever-expanding rival Tesco.
The analyst said: "Asda had a very good Christmas and early January, although things have eased off slightly since then. It's an excellent company but too much time is being spent running around trying to find a bed partner and, meanwhile, it's losing ground as the globalisation of Tesco's continues."
Asda's campaign to take on the designers at their own business looks like it could be paying off. A monthly survey by market researchers AGB-Taylor Nelson suggests the group has increased its market share by 13.7pc compared with the same period last year.
The group took such tactics one step further last week when it announced it was stocking sunglasses designed by such famous names as Gucci, Armani and Calvin Klein, but cutting the cost - some of which are valued at £155 - by half.
Pre-tax forecasts are expected to be £400m, with a dividend of 3.4p.
TODAY
HARVEY Nichols reports full year results today and analysts will be interested to see how the Leeds branch, opened in 1996, has influenced profits and what the latest is on further expansion plans. The upmarket fashion store is understood to have been looking at sites in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Manchester.
A reasonable performance is expected, despite a slowdown in sales growth and pre-tax profits are forecast between £13.6m and £14.1m. The dividend is expected to be about 6.2p.
TUESDAY
NIGHTCLUBS-to-healthclubs company First Leisure reports its interims on Tuesday. Most analysts seem to think the results will show a healthy profit, with average forecasts suggesting £20m, compared with £16.5m over the same period last year.
However, a warning bell has been sounded. Some analysts believe Cazenove, the house broker, recently cut back its estimates on the extent of profits growth to just £18.5m. One analyst said: "If it's true, the question we have to ask is do they know something we don't or is it just that their research is rubbish."
Cazenove was not prepared to comment last week.
While the nightclub business is expected to show healthy turnover, the fitness centres are expected to be trickier to gauge. Bruce Jones from Merrill Lynch said: "It's difficult to establish how well the health clubs are doing. First Leisure has put a lot of money in it, but it's easy to over-estimate early profits." The latest in the saga to sell Blackpool Tower could be an issue on Tuesday, although such a sale is not expected to have very little effect on full year figures, currently expected to be around £48m.
WEDNESDAY
ANNUAL figures from Great Universal Stores, the first since the group won control of Argos and US database services Metromail, is expected to be generally healthy. However, the crisis in the Far East could leave a dent in the retail giant's Burberry division.
Analysts are interested in what GUS plans to do with catalogue retailer Argos and the costs savings from the integration of Metromail with its other credit information business Experian, which is expected to make up almost half of group operating profit.
One analyst said: "GUS has made such substantial changes to its business portfolio and its capital structure in the last 18 months, that this set of results will be less important than news of the Argos acquisition." Home shopping profits are expected to be flat. In April the company said UK home shopping sales had increased by 8pc over the year.
Pre-tax profits before exceptionals range from £555m to £585m, compared with £571m last year. The total dividend is forecast at 20p.
THURSDAY
APPLIED Holographics is expected to reveal its first real profit for the full year since it floated in 1985.
The progress of the Microsoft contract will be of particular interest.
Pre-tax profits of £500,000 compare with a loss of £240,000 the previous year.
