Financial Highlights
Constant currency revenue up 2.9%; including acquisitions adding 3.4%; constant currency organic revenue down 0.5%
Operating margin up 30bps
Constant currency diluted EPS up 8.6%
Cash flow from operations up 20%
Interim dividend up 6.7%
Operating Highlights
Industry & Assurance reflects strategic exit from low-value contracts (reduced Group organic growth rate by 1.5%) and customer delays in the phasing of capital project work
Good growth in Commercial & Electrical and Consumer divisions, including very strong growth in newer sourcing countries
Commodities showed good progress in oil cargo in Asia and US shale activities; continued double-digit declines in Minerals including Indonesian export ban
Progress on profit-enhancing restructuring; £9.7m cost in the half
Wolfhart Hauser, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Intertek delivered good growth in our product-related divisions, but continued to see headwinds in our minerals and energy-related businesses. A strong focus on profitability and cash flow enabled Intertek to deliver margin improvement of 30 basis points, constant currency EPS progression of 8.6% and a 20% increase in operating cash flow. This includes our strategic decision to exit certain low-value Industry contracts which reduced the Group's organic growth rate.
Organic revenue growth for the Group will strengthen in the second half as one-off effects annualise and as we continue to see good growth in other areas of our portfolio.
Looking further ahead, our strategic choice of portfolio positions Intertek to benefit from attractive long term structural growth drivers. Our product divisions are strongly leveraged to increasing middle class demand for quality in emerging markets, expanding regulation and product variety. Our energy products and infrastructure businesses enable Intertek to take advantage of the long-term growth in energy demand. Through these strategic positions and long-term trends Intertek is well placed to deliver high single digit organic revenue growth over the coming years."
