Wednesday preview: EU reconstruction fund, British Land in the spotlight

The focus on Wednesday will be on the European Commission's proposal for a Recovery Fund which market observers will be leveraged to reach over €1trn.

In the opinion of many economists, such a plan is both necessary and desirable to ensure and sustain a recovery from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Yet perhaps more importantly, the issuance of joint debt may mark a watershed by eliminating what has long been pinpointed as the largest flaw of the single currency area, the lack of fiscal transfers.

That too may have deep geopolitical implications.

Writing on 24 May, Eriuk Nielsen, chief economist at Unicredit, said: "So, my view is that the Rubicon has been crossed, and most importantly by Germany.

"Merkel changed tact, most likely because she realizes that this is a much more profound crisis than previous ones, and it is taking place in an increasingly dangerous world shaped by the collapse of US leadership and the increasingly assertive China, with Russia playing spoiler in Europe and elsewhere."

Property developer British Land will release its full-year 2020 results on Wednesday.

UBS analysts have penciled a 10.3% drop in EPRA net asset value versus the comparable year ago period to reach 905.0p per share due to the drag from negative revaluations in the retail portfolio.

The pressure bearing down on the retail sector was expected to be the chief drag.

Earnings per share meanwhile were seen down by 6% to 32.0p on the back of a 4% fall in gross rental revenues to €522m, UBS said.

Nevertheless, the impact from falling rental revenues was "largely" from before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On that note, UBS said: "We will be looking closely at the impact of COVID-19 on rent collection levels since the last business update, which saw dividends suspended and various actions taken to help retailers hurt by Covid. Landsec, a close peer to British Land, saw the portfolio fall 8.8% as retail dropped 21%. We will also be looking for updates on rent collection numbers."

Wednesday 27 May

INTERIMS

Britvic

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Tetragon Financial Group Limited

FINALS

Biffa, British Land Company, Hibernia Reit , Ramsdens Holdings

AGMS

Anglo Pacific Group, BP, Brunner Inv Trust, Coca-Cola European Partners (DI), Contour Global , Fundsmith Emerging Equities Trust , Goco Group , International Public Partnerships Ltd., International Public Partnerships Ltd., Keywords Studios, M&G, RM Secured Direct Lending, Scotgems, Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) 'B' Limited, Sherborne Investors (Guernsey) C Limited NPV, The Gym Group, Trident Resources , Vectura Group, Vitec Group, Wameja Limited (DI), XLMedia

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Provident Financial

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Antofagasta, London Stock Exchange Group