LONDON (ShareCast) - There were times earlier this year when it looked possible that buy-to-let lender Bradford & Bingley would not be around to announce its interim results this Friday.

With around three-quarters of the shares issued in the recent emergency rights issue still hanging over the market, the results will need to be spectacular to start repairing the company’s share price, which has plunged almost 90% over the last year.

Long suffering shareholders may settle for evidence that bad debts and impairments are not getting out of control.

Given Bradford & Bingley’s dependence on the health of the UK housing market, shareholders may gain further clues as to future trends from the results of property web-site Rightmove, where analysts will be most interested to see how well subscriber numbers are holding up, particularly in view of the imminent launch of subscription-free rival web-site Property Live, which has the backing of the Association of Estate Agents.

Online gaming group Partygaming claimed last month that its revenues had been hit by customers being lured away by the Euro 2008 football tournament. Though the company does offer the opportunity for customers to bet on sporting events, this side of the business is dwarfed by the online poker and casino games.

It will be encouraged, therefore, by rival 888’s sparkling results which showed no indication of the Olympic Games proving a similar distraction.

Partygaming expects full-year results will meet expectations, but legal issues in the US remain a drag on the share price, with a settlement with the US Department of Justice still to be negotiated.

Analysts are looking for half year revenues of around $255m, while EBITDA estimates range from $54m to $56m.


Friday August 29

INTERIMS
AGA Rangemaster, Bloomsbury Publishing, Bradford & Bingley, Brammer, Cadogan Petroleum, Charles Taylor, Chesnara, Dana Petroleum, Davis Service, Derwent London, Development Securities, Gem Diamonds, Hardy Underwriting Bermuda, IFG, Inion, JKX Oil & Gas, Lavendon, Marshalls, New Star Asset Management Group, PartyGaming, Punch Grafix, Puricore, Regus, Restaurant Group, Rightmove, Robert Walters, Salamander Energy, SVG Capital, T Clarke, Talvivaaran Kaivososakeyhtio, Trafficmaster, Unite Group, XCounter AB

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Anglogold Ash, Beazley Group, Chemring Group, Domino's Pizza UK & IRL, Edinburgh UK Tracker, Independent Investment Trust, Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings, Phoenix VCT, Reed Elsevier

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Bankers Investment Trust, Prodesse

EGMS
Amtel, F&C Asset Management

AGMS
Biocare Solutions, BlueCrest AllBlue Fund, Oriel Resources, The Indian Film Company, UBC Media Group, Van Dieman Mines

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
British Polythene

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Artemis Alpha, Huveaux, Kewill, Latham (James), MS International, Prologic

• News Channel