Having weathered some tough years, Europe's chief financial officers are in a confident mood. The European CFO poll was conducted by Richard Davies Investor Relations on behalf of Financial News and the corporate and investment banking arm of Société Générale.

It surveyed more than 120 finance directors representing European companies with an aggregate market capitalisation of more than €800bn ($950bn) and found that most were confident about the outlook for business conditions over the next 12 months.