Travel giant TUI seeks further gains at rival’s expense

A TRADING update from holidays giant TUI and fullyear results from the Cooperative will dominate the business agenda next week.

Thomson Holidays owner TUI Travel will reveal whether it has made further gains at the expense of its struggling rival Thomas Cook in a half-year update on Thursday.

Europe’s biggest tour operator posted a strong first quarter with summer 2012 bookings flat on the previous year, compared to a 14% decline in the overall market.

The solid performance came as Thomas Cook fought to restore its finances and reputation after racking up bigger first-half losses and being forced to turn to its banks for extra help. An earthquake in New Zealand, the Japanese tsunami and floods in Australia and Thailand resulted in big losses for Lloyd’s of London last year.

The specialist insurance market, which is made up of 87 underwriting syndicates, revealed an estimated £1.4 billion of claims from the severe floods which have devastated parts of Thailand.

Lloyd’s, which posts annual figures on Wednesday, reported half-year losses of £697 million in September.

The Co-operative Group’s pursuit of 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches will dominate results from the UK’S largest mutual on Thursday.

Lloyds named the Co-op as its preferred bidder for the branches last year but admitted on Thursday that the timetable for agreeing the basic terms of the deal has slipped into the second quarter of this year.

Financial regulators are concerned that the Co-op, which runs several businesses including a supermarket chain and a bank, has insufficient banking skills on its supervisory board to run the enlarged business.

Lloyds is being forced to divest the branches because of the £20 billion in state aid it received following the 2008 financial crisis. The Coop will also provide an update on its supermarket business, which is reportedly struggling to integrate the 800 Somerfield stores it acquired in 2009.

Half-year results from housebuilder Bellway are expected to show a rise in profits and upbeat comments on the key spring selling season on Tuesday.

The UK’S fourth biggest housebuilder said sales were resilient in the buildup to what is traditionally the busiest time of the year.

Newcastle-based Bellway recently said visitor levels were up by around 20% since the start of January despite tough comparisons with the previous year, and it will reveal whether the strong trend has continued

The City expects the group’s pre-tax profits to rise by a third to £89.8m in the year to the end of July.