LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Quality assurance provider Intertek Group updated the market on its trading for the year-to-date on Tuesday, reporting a 4.7% improvement in group revenue at constant rates to £2.49bn, or 7.4% growth at actual rates.
The FTSE 100 company said its organic revenue growth momentum improvement was driven by products and resources for the period between 1 January at 31 October, with organic product revenue growth at 2.3%, trade at 4.4% and resources at 5.2%.

It said it saw 1.4% revenue growth from acquisitions in "attractive" growth and margin sectors, and added it had continued its operational discipline on margin and cash management.

The Intertek board said 2019 would mark "another year of consistent progress" on revenue, margin and cash.

"Our purpose to bring quality, safety and sustainability to life is truly meaningful to our clients given the increased complexity in their operations," said chief executive officer André Lacroix.

"We are benefiting from higher demand from our customers for our industry leading 'Total Quality Assurance' (TQA) solutions in our products, trade and resources divisions.

"Intertek is going from strength to strength."

Lacroix said 2019 would mark "another year" of continued progress in revenue, margin and cash, as the firm expected to deliver good organic revenue growth with solid margin progression at constant rates and strong cash conversion.

"Our good organic revenue growth at constant currency at the Group level in 2019 will be driven by good organic growth in our products division, good organic growth in our trade division and by robust organic growth in our resources division.

"The $250bn 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 innovative total quality assurance approach."

The company provided "leading" assurance, testing, inspection and certification (ATIC) solutions that were "mission-critical" to customers across multiple industries, Lacroix noted, through its global network of subject-matter experts.

"We operate a high quality and highly cash generative earnings model delivering strong returns.

"Our '5x5' 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."

Intertek said its full-year results to 31 December would be announced on 3 March.

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