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Tuesday preview: Michael Page, Northern Foods, UK Manufacturing

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Date: Monday 06 Oct 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - A trading statement from recruitment firm Michael Page may well indicate whether the company was wise to reject a bid from Swiss Human Resources giant Adecco last month.

Chief executive Steve Ingham said Adecco might have to pay 600p a share for the business, a price which is more than two-and-a-half times the current share price. The shares have been under a cloud recently, with brokers turning bearish on the stock,

Swiss bank UBS has downgraded its recommendation to “sell” and is expecting third quarter growth to slow down to around 6.5% from around 15% in the preceding quarter. Broker Chevreux recently cut its 2009 earnings forecasts for the group, estimating that next year’s pre-tax profits will slide 10%.

The fall in food sales announced last week by Marks & Spencer will have alerted shareholders in ready-meals maker Northern Foods. M&S is the company's largest customer by far and may have been tempted to use its buying power to squeeze Northern's margins.

UK manufacturing output and industrial production figures for August are due out. Manufacturing output is expected to fall for the sixth month in a row, declining 0.2%, following a similar fall in July.

Industrial production is forecast to edge 0.1% lower, after falling 0.4% in July. The end of routine maintenance work in the North Sea may cushion the month-on-month fall a little.


INTERIMS
Brown (N.) Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Dunedin Income Growth Inv Tst

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Direct Wonen

TRADING STATEMENT
Michael Page (Q3) , Northern Foods

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