Mainfreight set to deliver results

The fortunes of Eric Watson's Pacific Retail Group will be revealed this week, while freight forwarder Mainfreight is expected to report another healthy gain in annual earnings.

For Pacific Retail, the market will be eager to learn how its foray into Britain's PowerHouse electrical goods chain has fared, and keen on any news about the possibility of a Pacific Retail Finance float.

Pacific Retail is majority owned by entrepreneur Eric Watson. Alliance Capital Management manages an 11 per cent stake for institutional investor AXA.

Alliance Capital analyst John Norling said Alliance would be interested in an update on how Pacific Retail's lingerie unit, Bendon, is performing, particularly in the US and Britain.

"The market has been pretty concerned (with PowerHouse) because the losses there have been large," Norling said.

The potential sale of its finance unit is also an issue and the company could use the result to post a progress report, Norling said.

Pacific Retail's capital notes are out of favour with the market, and the company has bought back just over a million notes to shore up the price. Proceeds from the sale of Pacific Retail were intended to buy back or redeem notes.

Meanwhile, Greg Main at Forsyth Barr is expecting Mainfreight to report a net profit after abnormal items of $12.4 million in the year to March, up from $9.01 million.

- REUTERS