Danish shipping and oil giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk is expected to post a slight rise in 2005 net profit excluding special items, due mainly to rising freight rates and higher oil prices.
Maersk is due to release figures on Wednesday, March 29.
The mean forecast in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts showed a net profit before special items of 24.7 billion crowns ($4 billion) compared with 24.4 billion in 2004.
Maersk holds 20 percent of the Nordic region's second largest bank, Danske Bank, and reports proceeds from this stake as well as foreign exchange income as special items.
Total revenue is expected to rise 23.9 percent to 205.6 billion crowns.
A. P. Moeller-Maersk, together with its partners Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, holds about 85 percent of the Danish oil production in the North Sea.
In August 2005, the group acquired Dutch company Royal P&O Nedlloyd, and in October it purchased a majority of Kerr-McGee Corporation's oil and gas interests in the British sector of the North Sea.
The group has forecast net profit - before effects of discontinued operations and its purchases of Royal P&O Nedlloyd and Kerr-McGee oil and gas interests - to be around 23 billion crowns.
It has not given a prediction that is directly comparable with the analyst forecast.
Discontinued operations are expected to contribute a minor, but positive amount.
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