Whitbread, Photo-Me and BHP Billiton

“The FTSE 100 surrendered some of yesterday's heady gains as caution returned with only two days to go before the EU referendum. Wall Street and Asian markets were moderately higher and crude oil was hovering around the $50 a barrel mark,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Costa Coffee continues to provide the main stimulus behind Whitbread’s sales growth. Costa had a good start to the year, growing total system sales by 11.4% to £414.3m. Like-for-like sales for Whitbread’s Premier Inn business were up 2.1% but total revenue per available room fell by 1.2% and occupancy rates were also lower as the group continued its hotel extension programme. The fall in revpar was against a strong comparator and industry data which continues to show a soft hotel market in the UK as a whole and particularly in London.

“Photo-Me has seen strong progress with record underlying pre-tax profits of £40.1m despite a global economic backdrop that has remained challenging. Volumes in its photobooth estate have been boosted by the gradual rollout of the new Japanese identity card and the expansion of its Revolution laundry product remains on track. The final dividend is up 20% and there is a special dividend of 2.815p per share representing an additional payout of £10.6m.

“BHP Billiton sees a bright future for its coal business with the demand in emerging economies remaining resilient for decades to come.  BHP Billiton can grow its coal business by releasing low-cost, latent capacity as well as by exercising high quality growth options and its position will be further supported by improving market dynamics.”

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