Our last update on Oxford Instruments (OXIG), at the technology tools group's half-year results, was resolutely bearish. Currency movements may have been kind, but slowing academic funding in the US and a tepid healthcare market brought reasons for concern. And while full-year figures still point to a "challenging market backdrop", a post-period agreement to sell the industrial analysis business for £80m has clouded the picture, notwithstanding the shares' recent re-rating.
That deal removes a business that generated revenues of £49.5m and adjusted operating profits of £3.3m in the year to March. Still, with orders down in the period - offsetting a better performance in the nanotechnology tools segment - it's not hard to see why management is happy to part ways.