Telecoms equipment maker Marconi has reported second quarter-results that were no worse than it had forecast.
The results gave it some breathing space after two profit warnings and thousands of job cuts.
The heavily indebted British company, which saw its sales and shares collapse after its customers slashed spending, said in a trading update it made an operating profit of £5 million sterling in the three months to September 30th.
That was just above the break-even level it forecast on September 4th, when its second-profit warning in two months triggered the resignation of its chairman and chief executive.
Shares in the former British industrial flagship climbed as much as 24 per cent to a one-month high of 31 pence, more than double the lows hit this month but still 98 per cent off their peak. Marconi said it had managed to cut its debt pile to £4.28 billion at the end of September from £4.44 billion a month earlier.
But the firm said its markets remained tough and had grown more unpredictable following last month's attacks in the United States, preventing it making any full-year forecasts.
Marconi's customers - telecoms operators wrestling with large debt burdens themselves - have been deferring or cancelling orders for months.