John Revill, Oliver Hirt for Reuters:  Swiss engineering group ABB (ABBN.S) aims to take advantage of improving market conditions and its own transformation into a simpler company this year after navigating a “transitional” 2017, Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer told Reuters.

The company, which makes products ranging from industrial robots to power grids, has fought off an activist investor who wanted to break it up as well as a sustained downturn in markets like mining and oil and gas.

It has responded by cutting costs, simplifying its structure, and ditching fringe businesses. Profitability declined slightly in the first nine months of 2017 while sales rose 2 percent, and its stock reached a nine-year high.

“The last couple of years ABB was in the repair shop and now we are coming out. With political stability and digitalisation we have positive conditions and a better platform to participate in the upturn,” Spiesshofer said in an interview at the company’s Zurich headquarters.  See full Q&A: