RAMSEY CROOKALL & CO
EVENING REPORT 3 February 2011
The turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia threatens to reverse an improving trend at holiday group
TUI Travel. The operator of brands such as Thomson and First Choice, whose shares are lower,
posted higher revenues in the three months to 31 December and said it has had a good start to
2011. However, the problems in North Africa could impact results for the current quarter by
£25m to £30m. Holidays to Egypt from mainland European destinations such as Germany and France
have been cancelled. TUI is still sending holidaymakers from the UK to Red Sea resorts.
Elsewhere, GlaxoSmithKline rose after reporting its full-year results. The drug giant saw
revenues fall in 2010 as it felt the pinch of generic competition and the end of a boost from
sales of pandemic-related products. Turnover for the year to 31 December was down to £28.4bn a 1%
decline from the previous year. Pre-tax profits were down to £4.5bn from £8.7bn. The stock closed
up 40p at £11.68.
Strong growth in broadband subscribers and a pick-up by its global services operation helped telecoms
titan BT, one of today’s best performers, lift profits by almost a third over the past three months.
Pre-tax profits in the quarter to December jumped by 30% to £531m from £408m, even though sales fell
slightly to £5.04bn from £5.2bn. BT added 188,000 new broadband subscribers in the three months to
take its market share to 53%. Profits from its global services division rose by 15% to £141m on an
underlying business, though sales here fell by 7% to £1.98bn. BT closed up 6p at 184p.
Finally, mobile phone titan Vodafone thinks full-year profit will be at the top end of the range following
a third quarter that went pretty much as expected, driven by strong growth in India and parts of Europe.
The company, which yesterday announced the departure of chairman Sir John Bond, reckons adjusted operating
profit will be towards the upper end of the £11.8bn to £12.2bn range given in November.
THE FTSE 100 CLOSED DOWN 16 @ 5983
THE DOW JONES AT 4.30 IS UP 1 @ 12,040
THE NASDAQ COMP AT 4.30 IS UP 10 @ 2738
Exchange Rates
GBP – USD 1.61
GBP - EURO 1.18
Thursday 3rd, February 2011 05:11pm.
