Equity Briefing BM Jet2 and FST

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B&M European Retail Value

Discounter B&M will release a first-quarter trading update this morning covering the three months to late June. These updates focus on revenue and like-for-likes.

The company has been able to deliver impressive growth during the pandemic as it was allowed to remain open as an essential retailer. Revenue jumped 26% in the financial year to the end of March and profits more than doubled as it swallowed up sales whilst its rivals were closed and it continued to open rafts of new stores. The focus is on whether B&M has been able to keep up the momentum as lockdown has eased and other stores have reopened.

Regardless, growth is likely to slow as B&M comes up against strong comparatives from last year when demand exploded as lockdown was introduced. Investors will also be hoping for some form of guidance on what to expect going forward after B&M said things were too uncertain back in March to know what to expect.

Jet2

Airline Jet2 is scheduled to report full-year results today covering the 12 months to the end of March.

The company has already revealed that it will report a loss before tax and foreign exchange revaluation of between £375 million and £385 million compared to the £264.2 million profit booked the year before as the pandemic continues to bite.

The numbers will unsurprisingly be grim, but the focus is on how Jet2 can bounce back going forward and how the market for international travel is shaping-up. It has said that it is encouraged by the vaccine rollout in the UK and Europe but has been disappointed with how governments have handled restrictions on travel as this has made it difficult to gain clarity.

Still, whilst this causes uncertainty for this summer, it said it was pleased with the level of forward bookings for this winter and for summer 2022.

Fuller, Smith & Turner

Pub operator Fuller, Smith & Turner will publish full-year results covering the 12 months to March 27 today.

The numbers will make for hard reading. Analysts are expecting annual revenue to plunge to just £70.5 million from £333 million the year before as its sites were closed for much of the year and had to deal with restrictions when they were allowed to open. The company is expected to swing to an adjusted loss before tax of £53.8 million from the £18.0 million profit booked the year before.

Investors will want to know how its pubs have fared since they were allowed to reopen and what the board expects going forward safe in the knowledge they can start to operate as normal later this month.

Analysts currently expect Fuller, Smith & Turner will return to profit in the 2022 financial year but don’t expect revenue to recover to pre-pandemic levels until the 2023 financial year.

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