If market rumours are to be believed, plumbers' merchant Wolseley could announce a special dividend with its full-year results on Tuesday.

If it does so, that would represent a remarkable turnaround for a company which not so long ago looked set to collapse under the weight of its own debt.

"The group is the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building materials in North America, the UK and Continental Europe. Although these markets are very competitive, Wolseley has made good progress in the year to July 2012 driven largely by the revenue uplift in North America," notes Charles Stanley's Tony Shepard.

It is these North American revenues which are supposed to be underpinning the payment of a special divi, if, indeed, Wolseley decides to pay one.

Shepard is predicting an increase in the full-year pay-out from 45p last year to 60p this, on the back of earnings per share up from 143p to 164p. Charles Stanley has pencilled in a figure of £618m for pre-tax profit.

"It is pleasing that Wolseley delivered strong LFL [like-for-like] revenue trends in the USA but the Eurozone crisis is beginning to [have an] impact [on] the European performance. In particular, the Nordic region which includes Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway is facing more challenging trading conditions. Also, there may be some negative currency translation effects," Shepard reckons.

Engineering support firm Babcock's second quarter interim management statement should reveal further progress on the expanding bid pipeline, broker Panmure Gordon products.

"We expect the core areas of its business in Marine and Defence to remain solid. One area of concern could be South Africa, albeit we note its exposure here is on domestic consumption rather than international resources," the broker cautions.

On the economic front, the Nationwide Houser Price Index for September is expected to show no change from August, and is tipped to be down 0.6% year-on-year.


INTERIMS
Walker Greenbank

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
FBD Holdings, Holders Technology

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Auto Sales (US) (15:00)
Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)

FINALS
Antisoma, St Ives, Ultimate Finance Group, Wolseley

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Babcock International Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
City of London Group, Micro Focus International, Vianet Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Nationwide House Prices (Sep) (7.00)
PMI Construction Survey (9.30)


JH

Related share prices
Wolseley (WOS) share price
Babcock International Group (BAB) share price