MSB International has cheered shareholders with an upbeat statement at its annual general meeting.

The company said: “The actions taken over the past few months to improve operational gearing and reduce overheads have taken effect, with revenues and profit ahead of internal expectations and this period last year.”

By late afternoon, the firm’s shares were up 6% on their opening level.

In late March, the firm said it had received a takeover approach. Today’s statement made no mention of this. MSB is yet to confirm that the approach was from Quantica. However, sources say that Quantica is now at the “due diligence” stage of the takeover process, where it is taking a detailed look at MSB’s books.

In April, the company, which specialises in IT recruitment, reported its results for the year to January. Revenue was £95.7m, up from £92.3m a year earlier. But it made a pre-tax loss of £558,000, against a profit of £997,000 a year earlier.