Morgan Stanley, Spirent's newly appointed financial adviser, helped the UK telecoms testing equipment maker take a £27m (€48m) book profit on the sale of its Sensor Solutions Group, and further deals could be in the pipeline

Spirent's Sensor Solutions Group, a telecommunications network testing business, was sold for $220m cash to General Electric, the US industrial conglomerate. Spirent originally paid £124.4m for the division, made up from £59.6m in the book value of the net assets and £64.8m of related goodwill. The company was pleased that it had managed to buck the trend and make a profit in a depressed technology sector that has recently witnessed a flurry of loss-making disposals.