City expects Bass to change its name
City analysts believe Bass may change its name to reflect its move away from brewing.
There is also speculation that talks of a demerger will dominate Thursday's interim results.
The company is expected to report pre-tax profits of between £320 million and £340 million for the six months to March 2001. This compares with pre-tax profits off £324 million for the same period last year.
Analysts expect a rise in the interim dividend to around 10.5p a share, compared to 10.1p last time.
The group sold its Bass Brewers arm for £2.3 billion last year. In February the company revealed that trading for the first 16 weeks of the financial year is in line with expectations.
Analysts will be looking to see if the group's North American hotel operations are being affected by the U.S. slowdown.
Like-for-like sales in the retained pub and restaurant estate will be scrutinised following the recent sale of almost 1,000 outlets.
Stockbrokers Williams de Broe expect an interim pre-tax profit of £330 million, which would give earnings of about 27.6p a share.
Bass is now increasingly focused on its core hotels, it recently bought the Posthouse chain for £810 million, and branded retail operations.
Newly-appointed chief executive Tim Clarke is thought to be keen for a demerger. Some industry analysts reckon a demerger of its branded pub and restaurants division - which include the All Bar One, O'Neill's and Harvester chains - could create a new company worth £3 billion.
