Market conditions across the mining and upstream oil and gas markets remained
strong through the third quarter with the Group continuing to perform well,
achieving a new record in quarterly order input. These positive trends
continued through October. Although we remain vigilant given current macro-
economic uncertainty, this performance underpins our confidence in delivering a
strong set of results for 2011, in line with our expectations, and starting
2012 with a record order book.
Revenue strengthened further in the third quarter, ahead of both the first half
run rate and prior year period, as a result of the first half's strong order
input. As a result, Group operating profits were also up on the same
comparatives, with Group margins broadly in line with the first half.
