Diploma reported that profits before tax had risen by 8 per cent to £35.4 million CHINA DAILY/REUTERSShareholders in Diploma have been promised a clutch of acquisitions before the end of the year after it revealed rising revenues, profits and margins in its half-year results. Richard Ingram, chief executive of the technical products provider, said that the improving global economy had prompted family-owned businesses to be loathe to sell up during the past six months, making it harder to pursue chosen deal targets. However, he said that Diploma’s pipeline of possible deals remained “healthy” and that “work is continuing to bring some of these to completion before the end of the fiscal year”. Diploma was incorporated in 1931, listed on the stock exchange in 1960 and began to pursue takeover opportunities among industrial companies nine years later. It supplies specialised products and…

Source: The Times May 14, 2018 16:01 UTC