Olivier A. Filliol
Analyst · Jefferies
As stated, I was certainly pleased to see Europe coming in better than expected and our outlook in that sense stays favorable. In particular, when I listen to my team, we were, for example, on a big tour back in September where we visited the units and that was with recent contact also with the General Manager. What I hear from them is actually positive and makes me -- actually encourages me really for the future. What is more difficult is the news that I pick up in the newspapers, and that's certainly a more challenging environment when you read that. But we don't see that challenge in our own numbers at this stage. When it comes to China, I would say that our numbers have also slightly been above what we expected. But the environment stays challenging. I would say, of course, what we hear to the news, but also what I hear from our own managers, there are certain businesses that do really well. For example, the core lab business, where we continue to have very good growth numbers. Similar to Q1 and Q2, we have in Q3, actually, a double-digit growth in core lab. Process Analytics is still challenged, but that's mainly because last year we had a favorable environment Q2 regulation changes. Then when I come to Product Inspection, they had good numbers in China. And I expect them to continue to do well. But in China, we have a smaller piece of Product Inspection than the global average. So I mean it has a little bit less impact. And when it comes to Core Industrial, which is actually a big part of our Chinese business, we had some growth, and I expect actually that business to do okay going forward. But it is a business that is exposed to infrastructure investments, government spending and certainly, I do expect that this will continue to be challenging, because there is still overcapacity in China, and there are industry segments that are still suffering because of that. So all in all, I would say Q3 clearly showed that things gradually get better, but we remain cautious when it comes to China and Europe.