Shares in M&G, the savings and investments company, stand at an all-time high, just under six years since the FTSE 100 index member was spun out of Prudential.
The company is heavily represented in Scotland, with offices in Stirling and Edinburgh, and has undergone huge changes under Andrea Rossi who was appointed CEO in late 2022.
Half year figures this week should reveal progress on its £230 million cost reduction programme and analysts are looking for the company to confirm it is on track for 3% growth in the 2025 dividend.
AJ Bell says that if the forecast full-year dividend of 20.6p a share is correct, it would put M&G on a forward dividend yield of just below 8%, the fourth-highest forecast yield within the FTSE 100 for 2025.
The owner of Royal Mail is expected to show a return to profit on Monday in the firm’s first set of results since the completion of its £3.6 billion takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.
International Distributions Services (IDS) formally left the London Stock Exchange on 2 June after being taken over by Mr Kretinsky’s EP Group following clearance by the Government at the end of 2024 and approval by shareholders in April.
IDS said in January that it was on course to return to annual adjusted operating profit, before voluntary redundancy costs, in 2024-25, “despite the difficult market environment”.
The year has also seen regulator Ofcom rubber stamp reforms allowing Royal Mail to ditch second class letter deliveries on Saturdays and change the service to every other weekday, which the group can start rolling out from 28 July.
DIARY
Monday 1 September
- Full-year figures from Royal Mail
- Nationwide UK house price index
- UK mortgage approvals
- Purchasing managers’ indices for manufacturing
- Scottish parliament returns
Tuesday 2 September
- EU inflation
- First quarter figures from Ashtead
- Boris Johnson at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Wednesday 3 September
- First-half results from M&G
- Purchasing managers’ indices for services industries
Thursday 4 September
- Purchasing managers’ indices for the construction industry
Friday 5 September
- UK retail sales
- Halifax UK house price index
- US non-farm payrolls
- Reform UK conference, Birmingham
- Jeremy Corbyn’s party meeting in Glasgow
#making #progress #Royal #Mail #returns #profit #Daily #Business