The rebound of ICI
EVER since its drugs business was floated off as Zeneca four years ago, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) has been open to the charge that it was going nowhere. Its shares have underperformed the London stockmarket by 25%, as worries grew that low returns in the industrial chemicals business would always wipe the gloss off profits in its huge paints business (where ICI is the world's number one). Last year pre-tax profits fell by over a third to £498m ($778m) on sales of £10.5 billion, and in the first quarter this year they slumped by another two-thirds.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The rebound of ICI”
From the May 10th 1997 edition
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