Revenues strengthen at Spirent despite tough market

Updating on trading, the London-listed firm said order intake had gathered momentum, with key wins in its lifecycle service assurance and high-speed ethernet testing especially.

As a result, revenues grew by 5% in the third quarter, leading to an improved performance since the first half, Spirent noted.

It continued: "Despite challenging market conditions and customer hesitancy resulting from recent takeover announcements, we are encouraged by our third-quarter performance.

"We secured more new logo wins in our financial services segment, and we are building a promising pipeline."

In March, US firm Viavi Solutions made a £1bn approach for Spirent, but that was quickly trumped by a rival £1.16bn offer from rival Keysight Technologies. The agreed acquisition is still going through regulatory requirements, however, and last month Reuters reported that Viavi Solutions remained interested should the deal fall through.

Looking to the rest of the year, Spirent said: "Although market conditions remain challenging and are expected to continue in the near term, the recent momentum may deliver an improved second-half trading performance."

It concluded: "Our confidence in 5G as an enduring growth driver remains intact."

As at 0845 GMT, shares in the FTSE 250 firm were up 1% at 169.7p.