the result was much worse than consensus, page-7

Stayer - yeah - didn't like the results c/w expectations. Sorry - only just read your post. Re energy - they were targeting a small profit on 29/2 - now they are talking about breaking even and also "bidding to win" - so creating a price war, is how I read that. The 4th quarter unpat - using their numbers, was only 6.6m v 21.4 last year, so down 70%, while 4q revenue was only down 11%. Somebody smart pointed out to me that industrial had a good 3rd q, and so the 4th wasn't so great. Life Sci had a much slower growth rate for H2 than H1, although the comparative in H2 was stronger than h1 was - maybe an acquisition or ten impacted that. It looked like they had very little to crow about to me.

Still towards the end of the day the action was a bit bullish - if it was genuine market action and not a stunt. The oil price has an OK trend. When ALQ's markets recover, then their earnings could increase dramatically - so it is not all bad for somebody with a longer horizon than I have. Madamswer outlined that there is likely some fat that can be trimmed on employee expenses, which could possibly tempt a suitor.