Corporate diary: May 4 - May 8

Diary commentary from FT reporters; data and company announcements, unless otherwise stated, from Thomson Reuters. Company announcements are of information publicly available before last week. <

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EARNINGS

Berkshire Hathaway Q1 $2,372 ($2,149)

Comcast Q1 $0.74 ($0.68)

? Television advertising, theme parks and box office success for the live action remake of Cinderella may sprinkle fairy dust on Walt Disney as it reports fiscal second-quarter earnings. Wall Street is looking for earnings of $1.10 a share, flat from a year ago, on a boost in revenue to $12.24bn from $11.65bn.

ABC, the home of Scandal and Modern Family, has seen flat viewership in recent months, in contrast with declines at other networks. That has led analysts at Macquarie Securities to lift their ad forecasts for the Disney-owned broadcaster.

Theme park attendance in Florida and California is also expected to boost revenues, with Macquarie noting traffic to Orlando airport, closest to Disney World, up 8 per cent in January and February.

At cinemas, the $459m grossed by Cinderella, with Cate Blanchett, is expected to kick off a successful year of Disney films, including the upcoming Avengers sequel and the Pixar animated feature Inside Out.

Analysts will also be listening for executives' comments on the recent surge in online video services, which is upending the traditional television distribution system. Disney has said it is exploring streaming some of its most popular content, including ESPN's sports programming, the Marvel comic book brands and the Star Wars franchise, to capture younger people who are drifting away from pay-TV subscriptions. Shannon Bond

EARNINGS

Walt Disney Q2 $1.10 ($1.11)

? Investors will be on the look out for further smoke signals about M&A with Anheuser-Busch InBev's first-quarter numbers.

The Belgium-based brewer has made megadeals a staple of its business model. Analysts predict further consolidation in the drinks industry between the big four players - which also include Diageo, Heineken and SABMiller - but do not know who, when or if any of them will tie the knot.

In recent months, AB InBev has focused on returning cash to shareholders, tempering thoughts of any "transformational" deal for now. It boosted a buyback at its full-year results, which were marked by solid growth in emerging markets but a tougher time in Europe and the US.

Management has the task of firing up sales among young drinkers on both continents, who imbibe less often but with more fancy beers when they do. Investors will want to hear more about how AB InBev, which owns big brands such as Budweiser, is coping with this trend. Duncan Robinson

? Imperial Tobacco will report half-year results that will focus attention on industry consolidation, the group's position in the US and the hit from emerging markets such as Russia and Iraq.

The UK's biggest seller of cigarettes is set to become bigger globally if the proposed $25bn merger of Reynolds and Lorillard in the US goes ahead. This follows the £4.2bn deal it struck to acquire brands, including Winston, Kool and Salem, from Lorillard, to help get the merger through the competition authorities.

Gains from the potential acquisition are already largely priced into Imperial's shares but there could be volatility ahead, depending on the course of the scrutiny of the merger currently under way by US regulators.

Imperial has a mixed record in the US where it is the third-largest tobacco company and has had to battle market share losses. Attention will focus in the results on whether a recent improvement has been sustained and on Imperial's strategy to bolster its market position.

Both Reynolds and Lorillard recently reported better than expected quarterly sales, putting pressure on Imperial's trading performance. The company confirmed in its last trading update in February that it was on track to meet its targets, including measures to save £300m a year from September 2018. The direction of currency movements - principally the weaker euro and rouble - have been unfavourable and is expected to hit profits by 4 per cent in the full year.

Investors will also be looking for an update on progress of ecigarette and evapour brands and the threat to sales from growing demands for plain packaging. The UK followed the Irish Republic and Australia in voting through unbranded packaging, a measure which Imperial has said it will fight in the law courts. Plain packaging is one of a host of impending new regulations designed to curb sales, which include the introduction of EU-wide rules banning menthol cigarettes and requiring larger health warnings on packets. Scheherazade Daneshkhu

? GlaxoSmithKline has struggled to get its message heard over the past year as the pharmaceuticals industry has focused on scientific breakthroughs and big mergers and acquisitions.

The one large deal that GSK has done saw the UK group trade its cancer drugs for Novartis's vaccines unit, putting it at odds with rising enthusiasm for oncology in the rest of the industry. Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive, will get a chance to make the case for his contrarian approach when GSK lays out its strategy following completion of the $20bn asset swap with its Swiss rival.

The investor day, which coincides with first-quarter results, is crucial to Sir Andrew's efforts to shore up shareholder confidence after a torrid period of falling sales and a Chinese bribery scandal.

He will give more details of growth and efficiency savings that GSK expects from a newly streamlined business model focused on four areas: respiratory and HIV drugs, vaccines and consumer healthcare.

"By focusing on discrete business units, GSK management hopes to prove the shares are under-appreciated based on a sum-of-the-parts approach," says Alistair Campbell, analyst at Berenberg.

Vaccines and consumer products such as toothpaste and cold remedies will never create as much excitement as curing cancer but Sir Andrew believes that they offer steady long-term growth and a buffer against the volatility of drug development.

However, GSK's fate - and that of its chief - still rests heavily on the respiratory drugs that account for a quarter of revenues. These fell 10 per cent last year because of price pressure on its best-selling Advair asthma drug. Newer respiratory medicines intended to revive growth have so far failed to take off.

In light of this pressure, Mr Campbell thinks that GSK may scrap a plan to return £4bn to shareholders this year. This would cut earnings per share by 3-4 per cent but bolster confidence in its hefty dividend beyond 2015.

On Thursday Sir Philip Hampton is set to take over as chairman from Sir Christopher Gent after GSK's annual meeting, increasing the sense of upheaval as Britain's biggest drugmaker tries to find a cure for its ailments. Andrew Ward

EARNINGS

AB InBev Q1 $1.19 ($0.87)

GlaxoSmithKline Q1 17.36p (21.00p)

Imperial Tobacco H1 88.12p (89.40p)

EARNINGS

Siemens Q2 €1.68 (€1.33)

Results forecasts, from Thomson Reuters, are for fully diluted, post-tax EPS in local currency for the stated fiscal period. The comparable period of the previous year is bracketed. Non-UK reporting periods are broken by quarter: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. UK periods are designated: Q1, H1 (first half), Q3 and FY (full year). Thomson Reuters calculates mean earnings estimates based on a majority policy where the accounting basis used for each company estimate is that used by the majority of contributing analysts [email protected]

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