Shares in Crawley telecoms equipment group Spirent have risen sharply after the former Footsie company said cost-cutting measures had started to pay off.
The group reduced its workforce by 223 at the end of last year after a fall in demand from major telecoms customers led to a profits warning.
But the company said the actions, which mainly related to jobs in North America, had helped improve operating profits in its fourth quarter.
Spirent has planned for 2003 by assuming further difficult conditions but said business since the turn of the year had met those revised hopes.
Shares in the company slumped by as much as half following October's profits warning but rose 22 per cent yesterday.
That was despite annual bottom-line pre-tax losses of £1.05 billion after Spirent took a £923 million hit by writing down the value of acquisitions made in the late Nineties.
Investors were also encouraged by plans to sell its stake in German-based WAGO.
Thursday March 13 2003
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