Hints and tips:
...It marched up the aisle twice before finally tying the knot and handing the French group about 60 per cent of its shares in return for Schneider’s industrial software division....
...The group’s industrial division – which provides testing for the oil, gas, agriculture and power industries – was the best performer, and gained from the £450m acquisition in April last year of Moody International...
...Among the fallers, product testing group Intertek lost 2.7 per cent to £19.10....
...… Intertek hires Intertek chairman Vanni Treves has bolstered the FTSE 100 product testing group board by hiring Rentokil boss Alan Brown and former KPMG chief Michael Wareing....
...That was despite an improvement in sales, which were up 4.9 per cent to £652.6m, driven by growth in Intertek’s oil, chemical and agriculture division – its biggest....
...Deutsche Bank raised its target price to £16.32 in a study of Xstrata’s zinc division, which it said demonstrated the group’s operational discipline and innovation....
...Organic revenue improvement has slowed, particularly in oil, chemical and agriculture. But the investment rationale – the tendency for companies to outsource complex quality assurance – remains sound....
...Invensys shed 3.1 per cent to 290.1p after the controls and automation group revealed a sharp fall in orders for its operations management division. ITV took top spot on the FTSE 250 leaderboard....
...The oil, chemicals and agricultural division – the most exposed, with 40 per cent of revenue dependant on volumes – grew at just 4.5 per cent in constant currency terms....
...The best performing part of the group was its oil, chemical and agri division, which increased operating profits by 52.7 per cent to £45.8m....
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