Erikka Askeland: Banking giants set to report hefty losses in 2009 results

RBS is expected to unveil a loss of between 5 billion and 6bn when it reports on Thursday, following its 24bn loss the previous year.

Chief executive Stephen Hester is expected to unveil 1.3bn of bonuses for RBS investment bankers despite the bank remaining in the red. RBS's impairment charges stood at 10.8bn for the first nine months of the year and could hit 14bn for 2009 as a whole.

Lloyds Banking Group is expected to post pre-tax losses of about 3.8bn on Friday.

The group is 41 per cent owned by the taxpayer after swallowing the toxic debts of HBOS. Lloyds garnered support for a record UK rights issue as part of a 20bn-plus fundraising completed in November.

Also of interest will be whether Hester and his Lloyds counterpart Eric Daniels waive any bonus entitlement, following the example of Barclays top bosses Bob Diamond and John Varley. Barclays reported record pre-tax profits of 11.6bn for 2009 last week.

Bookmaker William Hill is set to post a 10 per cent fall in annual profits to about 250 million on Friday as the industry faces headwinds from recession, unfavourable sporting results and weather disruption.

The group – along with the overall gaming industry – endured a difficult summer when Premier League football matches yielded few draws as well as plenty of victories for favoured teams such as Manchester United and Chelsea.

Builders' merchant Travis Perkins will report lower profits on Wednesday, although the group has seen recent glimmers of encouragement.

In December, the firm reported a steady revival in activity at home improvement arm Wickes, as well as a stabilising the builders' merchant market.

It forecast earnings towards the upper end of market expectations for 2009, although pre-tax profits are still likely to be about 10 per cent down on 2008's 202.5m.

British Gas owner Centrica should report a huge rise in profits at its residential business next week as households cranked up the heating to beat the winter cold.

It became the first of the "big six" UK energy companies to lower gas prices recently with a 7 per cent cut for its eight million customers, but operating profits for the residential arm are still expected to hit 554m – up from 379m in 2008.

While British Gas will have gained from last month's snow, which falls outside the period of the results, the figures for the group as a whole are likely to show operating profits down 7 per cent to 1.82bn in 2009.

This is because lower wholesale gas prices have a bigger downward effect on production profits than the uplift given by the residential business.

National Express reports annual figures on Thursday after a torrid year for the embattled rail and bus firm.

It will also mark the first set of figures for new chief executive Dean Finch, who started at the group on 15 February.

National Express handed its loss-making East Coast Main Line franchise back into state hands in November after running into trouble by overbidding for the deal before recession struck.

The company will also lose its East Anglian and c2c commuter deals in 2011 – three years early – after the embarrassing surrender of the franchise to the government.

Arbuthnot analysts are pencilling in annual profits nearly halving to 111.6m from 202.4m in 2008.

Meanwhile, interims from fellow transport group Go-Ahead, also on Thursday, may show improvements at its bus arm.

It said in December that while rail profits were expected to be broadly half last year's 34.9m due to a reduction in government franchise subsidies, its bus business was forecast to see interim profits slightly ahead of last year's 31.4m.