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Monday
Results: Amryt Pharma.
Indicators: Irish Exchequer returns (August); Euro zone PPI (July); UK construction PMI (August).
Meetings: Business 2Arts Awards.
Tuesday
Results: Dalata Hotel Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cairn Homes, Redrow .
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Indicators: Irish services PMI (August), industrial production (July), unemployment (August); Euro zone composite and services PMI (August), retail sales (July); UK services PMI (August), car sales (August); German composite and services PMI (August); US economic optimism (September).
Meetings: Dell EMC Forum 2017 on latest digital innovations (Convention Centre Dublin) .
Hotel group Dalata reports interim results on Tuesday at a time when it is making headlines for the right reasons.
Investors were advised exactly one week before posting that the group received the go-ahead from regulators to take control of a large section of the 352-room Clarion Liffey Valley, one of Dublin's largest hotels.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) approved a €62.5 million deal to acquire large sections of that interest and more than half of the rooms of the Clayton Hotel Cardiff Lane in Dublin's docklands.
Dalata is now expected to broach deals allowing it buy the two separate remaining ownership blocs at Liffey Valley, therein gaining full control.
A week prior to these developments, Davy Stockbrokers said it anticipated shares in the hotel group to rise by as much as 50 per cent in the medium-term if it could take advantage of UK market opportunities. It gave the Dublin-listed company an “outperform” rating, and a 12-month price target of €6.20.
“Our on-the-ground research in several UK cities points to a stock of dated and under-invested three-star and four-star hotels,” Davy said. “This is the opportunity for Dalata, which now plans to add circa 7,000 rooms in the UK – almost double its current room count.”
Wednesday
Results: Barratt Developments.
Indicators: Irish tourism and travel stats (Q2) and unemployment (August); Euro zone retail PMI (August); German construction PMI (August); US mortgage applications and rates (September), exports and imports (July), composite and services PMI (August).
Meetings: Ireland's Convenience Retailers Summit: "The Future of Convenience". (Clayton Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4); Digimarcon conference on digital marketing (online).
There is a theme running through Wednesday’s Convenience Retailer Summit: What the future might hold and how best to embrace it? The event’s focus may be a positive one but the retail trade, like all others, continues to be as challenged by the tide of technology as emboldened.
The summit is aimed at management and retail teams within neighbourhood, convenience, food-to-go, deli, cafe, symbol group, off-sales, supermarket, wholesale, and forecourt businesses.
Pitched as “the future of retailing”, talking points include future-proofing, the digital future and “turning uncertainty into opportunity”. No ambiguity then.
These are crucial considerations in an increasingly uncertain world, particularly in the retail trade. Those helping attendees face headlong into the storm are chief executives Danny McCoy of Ibec, Scott Hartman of convenience store chain Rutters and Brian Donaldson of Maxol, among others.
Meanwhile, eschewing any such notions of physical (in)convenience, the Digimarcon conference on digital marketing dispenses entirely with bricks and mortars this time around, opting instead to host its two-day event (Wednesday and Thursday) completely online.
Retailers may not yet be too worried – this is digital marketing after all – but it is a compelling contradiction in this week’s conferences. Its programme focuses on building traffic, expanding brand awareness, improving customer service and “gaining insight into today’s latest digital tools”.
Thursday
Results: Dell Technologies, Barnes & Noble, Bovis Homes, CPL Resources, EnQuest.
Meetings: Davy Building Materials & Construction Conference (New York).
Indicators: Irish consumer price index (August), live register (August) and road freight transport survey (2016); Euro zone GDP growth (Q2); UK house price index (August); German industrial production (July).
Meetings: ECB interest rate decision; Re:publica Dublin 2017 conference on digital technology (Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin, runs to Friday) .
Friday
Indicators: Irish consumer confidence (August); UK construction orders (Q2), construction output (July), manufacturing and industrial production (July); German exports and imports (July).
Meetings: The Franchise Show (RDS, Dublin 4, runs to Saturday).