The Week Ahead: Autonomy can benefit from banking upheaval

As the investment banking industry goes through unprecedented change – where one seems to disappear or need rescuing every other week – analysts believe opportunities are growing for those in the support services sector.

The FTSE 100 software group Auto-nomy is in a good position despite its share price, which has underperformed in the past month, falling 25 per cent. The group has "mega deals" with Citi-group, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, which all remain in place. Analysts at Kaupthing added that there could be opportunities from upheaval in the investment banking landscape. Autonomy's exposure to Merrill Lynch is small, although it keeps regulated email for Bank of America and could benefit from Bank of America's recently announced takeover of Merrill.

The Kaupthing analysts expect a strong third-quarter announcement on Wednesday after Autonomy's positive update last week, which flagged that revenues and adjusted earnings per share should be ahead of consensus estimates. The analysts estimate sales at $125m (£73m) after mega deals with investment banks, and as regulatory driven demand is keeping revenue going. All the analysts are pretty confident about the results and outlook for next year.

Today: Results/updates: Full year – Clinton Cards

Tomorrow: SABMiller became the target of the rumour mongers this month, with talk that it could be pre-paring a bid for Foster's beer business. Little more has been mentioned since but the subject could arise with the update on its second-quarter performance tomorrow. Deutsche Bank analysts predict an improvement on the first three months of the year, with volume growth of 2.6 per cent. They added that it was unclear how the volumes generated from the tie-up with MillerCoors would be reported.

Analyst Paul van Meurs said investors will look for an update on the consumer environment which has been challenging for the sector.

Morgan Stanley analyst Alexandra Oldroyd has resumed coverage with a price target of 1,120p, which suggests a 15 per cent upside.

Connaught, which works in social housing, is expected to provide positive results tomorrow. KBC Peel Hunt is expecting momentum from the sector, solid cash base and a positive update on National Britannia, the environmental group it bought for about £90m last year. The broker predicts 40 per cent revenue growth to give sales of £553m.

Condom maker SSL International is putting out its first-half figures as well. Cazenove analysts are expecting a strong first half, forecasting a 12.5 per cent jump in sales to £295.5m as new Durex and Scholl products have done well. The broker said: "We acknowledge that we are facing an uncertain consumer environment but believe SSL has a strong history of innovation and view certain of its key brands and products as relatively defensive."

Results/updates: Full year – Bellway, Connaught, Mantech Group; Trading update – Burberry Group, Cadbury, Carphone Warehouse, SABMiller, SSL International.

WEDNESDAY: The pub and restaurant group Whitbread is putting out its half-year results. Geoff Collyer at Deut-sche believes the group will cut its divi-dend growth from 15 per cent to 8 per cent. He said: "This has nothing to do with any cash flow concerns as the group has just two times net debt to Ebitda and the lower growth will save just £10m a year. It is a pragmatic move. With so many groups cutting dividend growth to zero or cutting or passing payment altogether, +8 per cent growth still tells the market that the group is very healthy and confident about its outlook, despite the difficult UK market macro outlook." He noted there could be some awkward news relating to the group's pension costs, while dilution from recent acquisitions, input cost inflations and costs from overseas start-ups could pressurise its Premier Inn budget hotel business.

Investors taking a flutter on Sportingbet should see strong prelims this week, according to Evolution Securities. Analyst Ivor Jones said the share price is a bit lower because of concerns with legal risks at its Turkish business "and does not reflect the potential of a highly adaptive company. It has been a busy summer of sport and we expect the company to have fared well when it reports its prelims".

Results/updates: Full year – Sporting-bet; Half year – Lidco Group, Whit-bread; Third quarter – Autonomy Corporation; Trading update – Diageo, Experian, Ferrexpo, Marstons

THURSDAY: Britvic has a full-year trading update. Philip Morrisey of Citi-group said the group should not spring too many surprises after holding an investor seminar last month. It said at the time that it would meet market expectations for profit of just over £52m and Mr Morrisey said there was little reason for this to have materially changed, expecting full-year revenue growth of almost 5 per cent.

Trading Emissions invests in carbon trading credits, and KBC says it offers "excellent value in a sector with growing public and political momentum and rising prices". It expects pre-tax profits to be close to £200m.

Results/updates: Full Year – Smiths News; Trading Emissions; Trading update – Britvic.

FRIDAY: Trading update – Rank.

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