ABB Maintains New-Order Momentum as CEO's Revamp Bears Fruit

ABB Ltd. reported quarterly order intake that beat estimates, advancing Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Spiesshofer’s effort to revamp the Swiss industrial giant without succumbing to the demands of activist investors. “These results will be seen as encouraging, the positive momentum around order backlog is the key,” Morgan Stanley analysts Ben Uglow and Katie Self write in note. ABB orders rose 8 percent in the second quarter on a comparable basis to $9.5 billion, Zurich-based ABB said in a statement on Thursday, beating the $9.16 billion estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.