Hyve Group and Topps Tiles among the main events on Tuesday

December 1, 2020

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The first day of December brings Christmas into view but there appears to be nothing behind the first door of the FTSE 350 advent calendar.

Although there are no blue chips in the diary for Tuesday, there should be some interesting smaller nuggets for investors.

Hyve Group PLC (LON:HYVE), the events group that was a constituent of the FTSE 250 until earlier this year, is due to report preliminary results.

In its last update just before its September 30 year end, the company said it expected annual revenues to be roughly £105mln compared to £221mln a year earlier, reflecting what had been a very strong start but a significant impact on its event programme from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hyve said a number of regions in which it operates had started to open up, resulting in 12 face-to-face events in the final quarter, amid a situation it described as “fluid”.

Shares in the company more than doubled on the early-November vaccine news but have lost ground again, back to 70% below where they started the year.

Peel Hunt analyst Malcolm Morgan, said much greater clarity was needed for investors on the shape of Hyve’s new financial year and the cash flow profile.

“The uncertainty inherent in existing market forecasts has to give way to a definitive plan.

“Will the new COO/CFO be able to do this in December? We think so.”

Topp of the month

Ahead of its own finals this week, Topps Tiles PLC (LON:TPT) also put out an update in September, where it retail trading in the fourth quarter remained “strongly positive”, with like-for-like sales up 16.5% in the final 13 weeks of the financial year to September 26.

The board of the retailer was confident the group will generate “a modest level of adjusted profit before tax” for the year.

The focus on results day is likely to fall on current trading, said Peel Hunt’s retail team, forecasting 8% for the first quarter of the new financial year.

“Given the strength of Q4 trading and strong performance across the wider RMI markets, current trading is likely to be challenging our forecast assumptions.”