Friday preview: IMI's Severe Service division in focus

IMI, the international engineering company, is the third major engineering company to announce results this week.

The market is expecting profit before tax for 2011 of £339.9m on turnover of £2.12bn. Earnings per share are tipped to rise to 77.86p from 66.30p last year, and the dividend to climb to 30.16p from 26.00p.

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Dawson notes that at the half year stage management had bragged of its ability to be financially nimble, thanks to the cost flexibility of the business model. "Given that this is exactly the trading environment that is facing the business it will be interesting to see whether the group has had to make further adjustments to the cost base or whether the structure is flexing as anticipated," Dawson suggests.