Wednesday preview: Beverage giant Britvic reports

Soft drinks producer Britvic will release its second quarter results Wednesday.

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity said the company's results are likely to reflect tough trading conditions across most categories, bad weather in the UK, a reduction in promotional activity and the recall of its popular children's drink Fruit Shoot.

The bottles of Fruit Shoot were recalled due to a packaging safety issue last year.

"The overall numbers will be impacted by the Fruit Shoot recall but the ongoing recovery in this product will be seen as a positive," Canaccord said in a note last week.

"The key question is whether a reduction in promotions has been offset by higher margins to generate greater value and consequently if this has led to a fall in marketing and advertising spend in the first half."

The broker recommended a 'hold' rating and target price of 380p.

Panmure Gordon forecasts revenues to rise by 1.8% to £652m, with adjusted operating profit margins rising by nine basis points to 6.6%. The analyst also rated the stock a 'hold'.

Britvic was in talks to merge with A.G.Barr but it came to a standstill after the Competition Commission opened an investigation.

Office of Fair Trading had referred the merger to the Competition Commission due to concerns that a tie-up could reduce competition between certain brands of A.G. Barr and Britvic.

The outcome remains uncertain but the company is expected to hear from the Commission by the end of the month.

Britvic will share the headlines Wednesday with Great Portland Estates, Cable & Wireless Communications and HICL Infrastructure Company as they release their full-year results.

Wednesday May 22th

INTERIMS

Innovation Group, Britvic

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Utilitywise

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Bellway, Diploma, Euromoney Institutional Investor, Titon Holdings

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Blackrock North American Income Trust , Carnival, M Winkworth

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)

Current Account (EU) (09:00)

Existing Home Sales (US) (15:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

FOMC Minutes (18:00)

Testimony Fed President Bernanke (15:00)

EU 27 Summit

Bank of Japan policy decision

FINALS

Cable & Wireless Communications, FirstGroup, Great Portland Estates, HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd, Hogg Robinson Group, Shaftesbury, UK Mail Group

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Polyus Gold International Ltd

AGMS

Advanced Medical Solutions Group, Aminex, Anglo Pacific Group, Bridge Energy Asa, Central Asia Metals, Churchill China, CSR, Henderson Global Trust, Legal & General Group, London Mining, Mecom Group, Mercantile Investment Trust (The), Michelmersh Brick Holdings, North American Income Trust (The), office2office, Optimal Pay, Panmure Gordon & Co, Pendragon, Roxi Petroleum, Serviced Office Group, Total Produce, Vernalis, W H Ireland Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30)

GDP 2nd release (09:30)

Internet Retail Sales (09:30)

Public Sector Finances (09:30)

CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Chesnara, Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. (Singapore), FBD Holdings, Hongkong Land Holding Ltd. (Bermuda), Hongkong Land Holding Ltd. (Jersey), Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd (Singapore Reg), Jardine Strategic Holdingd Ltd. (Singapore), Mandarin Oriental International (Singapore), Rexam, Serco Group, StatPro Group, Wood Group (John), Xchanging

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Belgravium Technologies, Burford Capital Ltd., Bwin.party Digital Entertainment, C&C Group, Capital & Counties Properties , Chime Communications, Clarkson, DCC, Dignity, Eastern European Trust, Elderstreet VCT, Empresaria Group, Fairpoint Group, Glencore Xstrata, Home Retail Group, Howden Joinery Group, Inchcape, Intertek Group, Journey Group, Maven Income & Growth 2 VCT, Menzies(John), Michael Page International, Nationwide Accident Repair Services, Netplay TV, Octopus Apollo VCT, Polyus Gold International Ltd, Provident Financial, Robert Walters, Share, SQS Software Quality Systems AG, Stobart Group Ltd., UTV Media, Witan Pacific Inv Trust, Xaar, Xstrata

RD