What’s coming up in the business week ahead

MONDAY

Results: Heineken; Porsche; Trinity Mirror; Veolia Environnement.

Indicators: Japanese Nikkei manufacturing PMI (Jul); euro-zone Markit manufacturing PMI (Jul); US Markit manufacturing PMI (Jul).

TUESDAY

German airline Lufthansa is expecting a decline in full-year earnings, due to be released tomorrow.

The airline cut its full-year profit target following a sharp decline in long-haul bookings to Europe, which it attributed to a series of terrorist attacks.

Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport was hit by an attack in June, a truck driver in Nice killed at least 84 people in July, and there was an axe attack on train passengers in Germany. A bomb attack at Brussels Airport in March caused Lufthansa to delay plans to take over Brussels Airlines.

Lufthansa revenues for the first half of the year came in at €15 billion, against €15.4 billion for the same period in 2015, although adjusted earnings rose to €529 million from €468 million.

Lufthansa had forecast 2016’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to be “slightly higher” than 2015’s €1.82 billion. It has since said it expects adjusted earnings before interest and tax to fall to “below previous year”, as a result of the terrorist attacks, which have caused passengers to scrap travel plans.

“Due to increasing political and economic uncertainties, the executive board reduces forecast” for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in 2016 to “below previous year”, it said.

“Advance bookings, especially on long-haul routes to Europe, have declined significantly, in particular due to repeated terrorist attacks in Europe and to greater political and economic uncertainty”.

Results: Avis Budget Group; BMW; Commerzbank; Deutsche Lufthansa; DSM; Etsy; Fitbit; Fresnillo; HTC; Liberty Global; Pfizer; Travis Perkins; Zendesk.

Indicators: Irish Investec manufacturing PMI (Jul); Japanese consumer confidence (Jul); UK construction PMI (Jul).

WEDNESDAY

Results: Buzzi Unicem; Continental; Deutsche Post; HubSpot; Rio Tinto; Société Générale; Tesla Motors; UniCredit; Western Union.

Meetings: European Central Bank non-monetary policy meeting.

Indicators: Irish exchequer returns (Jul); Japanese Nikkei services PMI (Jul); German Markit services PMI (Jul); euro-zone Markit services PMI (Jul); German Markit services PMI (Jul); Irish unemployment rate (Jul); US MBA mortgage applications (Jul 29th).

THURSDAY

Bookmaker Ladbrokes, which is in the midst of a £2 billion (€2.83 billion) merger with Gala Coral, is due to report quarterly earnings this week.

Ladbrokes is forecast to report earnings of 2.7p per share on revenue of £628.5 million for the first half of 2016.

The deal between Ladbrokes and Coral looks set to get cleared by regulators on condition that 350-400 betting shops are sold to allay competition concerns.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority last month published the summary of its final report into the proposed merger.

It reiterated the findings in the preliminary report in May which said that 350-400 shops would have to be divested in order to remedy competition concerns in 642 local areas.

“Ladbrokes and Coral will now have to find a suitable buyer or buyers for the shops which the CMA will have to approve,” Goodbody said.

Irish bookmaker Boylesports signalled that it could bid for British betting shops that Ladbrokes and Gala Coral must sell.

Separately, ratings agency Fitch has said it expects Ladbrokes’ EBIT margin to remain subdued at around 6 per cent in 2016, before improving to around 7 per cent by 2017.

The agency noted EBIT has been falling year-on-year due to intense competition. It fell 43 per cent to £80 million last year, though this was largely due to the introduction of point-of- consumption tax.

Results: Adidas; Alcatel Lucent; Inmarsat; Kerry Group; Ladbrokes; LinkedIn; Mondi; Nokia; RSA Insurance; Shutterstock; Siemens; Symantec; Time; TripAdvisor; Zynga.

Meetings: Zamano AGM (Conrad Hotel, Dublin 2).

Indicators: Irish Investec services PMI (Jul); Irish consumer confidence (Jul); euro-zone retail PMI (Jul); US initial jobless claims (Jul 30th).

Other: UDG Healthcare trading update; Bank of England interest rate decision.

FRIDAY

Results: Allianz; DSV; Hugo Boss; Kennedy Wilson Europe; LafargeHolcim; Royal Bank of Scotland; William Hill.

Meetings: August Founder Friday (Revolution Bar, Waterford)

Indicators: Irish industrial production (Jun); US nonfarm payrolls (Jul); US unemployment rate (Jul); US balance of trade (Jun); German factory orders (Jun); UK Halifax house price index (Jul).

Other: Bellway trading update.