Opus International Consulting, the engineering consultancy, will report its result for the six months to June. Brokers Forsyth Barr expect a 32 per cent increase in Opus' first half profit to $13.1 million. They expect the result to be buoyed by the Christchurch rebuild, some big Australian contracts, and by improvements in its United Kingdom business.
Tomorrow
Market expectations for Contact Energy, just over half owned by Australia's Origin Energy, are for a net profit of $170.9 million, up from $150.3 million a year earlier. Analysts expect the company to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and financial instruments (Ebitdaf) of close to $500 million - up from $441 million in 2010-11.
Morningstar analyst Nachi Moghe expects Contact to report Ebitdaf of $480 million and a net profit of $160 million. The result will be an improvement on the previous year, partly due to lower gas prices Contact had to pay under its take-or-pay agreement.
Wholesale electricity prices were higher over the year, which meant Contact was able to sell a higher proportion of its electricity into the lucrative spot market, Moghe said.
Food group Goodman Fielder will also report its annual result tomorrow. The company has said its normalised earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) and significant items was expected to be at the lower end of a A$230 million to A$245 million range.
Wednesday
SkyCity Entertainment reports its annual result on Wednesday.
The casino operator has said its normalised net profit for 2011-12 would be in the low $140 millions, down from a previous forecast of a profit in the high $140 millions, but still a solid improvement on the previous year's profit of $130.9 million.
However, SkyCity has suffered from a softening in trading conditions in Australia, particularly in Adelaide.
Market expectations are for AMP NZ Office to report a decline in net profit to around $52 million from $61.1 million a year earlier, due in part to the impact of lease expiries.
Friday
Challenging conditions in the international resins markets are expected to translate into flat earnings for Nuplex. The company is expected to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of around $131 million, compared with $130.9 million in the previous year.
Australia's puzzling two-speed economy is expected to play a part in Michael Hill International's annual result.
Market expectations are for a flat net profit of around $34 million. Australia, which accounts for 67.5 per cent of Michael Hill's sales, is by far its most important market.
In a trading update, Michael Hill said on a same-store basis sales fell by 3.2 per cent in the year, but gained by 7.3 per cent in New Zealand. Canadian sales were up 0.7 per cent and US store sales were up 11.7 per cent.
The company said the year had been a challenging one.
