About two years ago RWS decided to focus on life sciences as its most obvious route to growth. The company’s core business provides specialist translation services, so whenever a big pharmaceuticals company has to carry out phase III trials, they take place in a number of countries, each of which requires the necessary detailed paperwork in the right language.
Behind this strategy was the belief that clients also would use RWS to file patents to protect products that successfully cleared those trials. Meanwhile, the company provides basic translation services to corporates and a database allowing companies to search for patents.
When this column started to recommend the shares around 2012, the company was little understood in the market, with few obvious comparisons. They have been