Intertek Group plc (LON: ITRK), a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, today released its May Trading Update for the period from 1 January to 30 April 2019. All comparative comments in this statement reflect comparisons with the corresponding period during 2018. The Group’s half year results to 30 June 2019 will be announced on 1 August 2019.
Good start to the year with Robust Revenue Growth of 5.3%1
· Group revenue of £924.3m, up 5.3% at constant rates: Products +5.5%, Trade +6.5%, Resources +2.9%
· Broad-based organic revenue growth of 3.3% at constant rates: Products +2.6%, Trade +5.3%, Resources +2.9%
· 2.0% revenue growth at constant rates from Acquisitions in attractive growth and margin sectors
· 7.3% revenue growth at actual rates; 200bps foreign exchange translation benefit
· Continuous operational discipline on margin management and cash conversion
· On track to deliver full year revenue, margin and cash targets
André Lacroix: Intertek Group Plc Chief Executive Officer statement, May 2019
“In the first four months of the year, the Group has delivered revenue of £924.3m, up 7.3% year on year at actual rates and 5.3% at constant rates, driven by broad-based organic growth of 3.3% at constant rates, by the contribution of the acquisitions we made recently in attractive growth and margin sectors and by a 200bps benefit due to foreign exchange translation.
We are on track to deliver our 2019 targets of good organic revenue growth at constant rates, with moderate margin expansion and strong cash conversion. Given a good start to the year, we expect good organic revenue growth at constant currency rates in each of our three divisions: Products, Trade and Resources.
The $250 billion global quality assurance industry has attractive structural growth prospects driven by an increased focus of corporations on risk management, global trade flows, global demand for energy, expanding regulations, more complex sourcing and distribution operations, technological innovations, government investments in large infrastructure projects, and increased consumer demand for higher quality and more sustainable products.
We are uniquely positioned to seize these exciting growth opportunities with our Total Quality Assurance Value Proposition that provides a superior service, offering global Assurance, Testing, Inspection and Certification solutions to our customers across multiple industries through our global network of subject-matter experts and over 1,000 state-of-the-art facilities in over 100 countries.
We operate a high quality and highly cash generative earnings model delivering strong returns. Our ‘5×5’ differentiated strategy for growth will continue to move the centre of gravity of our portfolio towards the attractive growth and margin opportunities in the industry based on a disciplined approach to revenue, margin, portfolio and cash performance management, and an accretive disciplined capital allocation policy that delivers sustainable shareholder value creation.”
